


Welcome to Chorus, Master Chief

by Captain Grif (Captain_Grif)



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, Red vs. Blue
Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Gen, Halo 5: Guardians, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-13
Updated: 2016-09-13
Packaged: 2018-06-08 04:50:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6839755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Captain_Grif/pseuds/Captain%20Grif
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Master Chief is looking for answers; Washington, Carolina, and the Reds and Blues are looking for alien weapons; and Grif is just looking for a quiet place to take a nap. Everyone's world is about to get a lot bigger. This story takes place roughly between Halos 4 and 5 and between seasons 12 and 13 of RvB.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Mean Green Machine

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you like this story about the Chief and the Reds and Blues. It's not finished yet, but I think there will be about 6 chapters by the end. I chose to write this from Grif's perspective because he is the character I identify with the most out of all those in Halo and RvB. Please enjoy this story, and thanks for reading!

"Grif! What in Sam Hill are you doing!?" Sarge's grating voice jolted Grif from his dream about donuts. Donuts that were most definitely not pink... or glazed. "I told you to help secure alien technology!"

"Sarge, I've secured alien technology," Grif began, stretching his tired, flabby limbs. "I secured a computer, three laser guns, and a cool shield! All of this while doing as little actual work as possible, I might add. I think I've secured enough, so it's time I secured myself a well-deserved nap!"

"Can it, dirtbag!" Sarge snapped. "You could secure yourself a hammock and a vacation to Bermuda for all I care, if you did even half the work as Simmons!"

"Thank you, Sir!" Grif heard Simmon's annoying voice echo from somewhere in the vast chambers of one of Chorus' many alien temples. How he heard Sarge was a mystery.

"Simmons?" Grif questioned, "But all he found was a hand dryer!"

"And that hand dryer will prove vital to the development of Chorus' culture! It was one of those fancy automatic hand dryers that you just stick your hands into without touching anything. Besides, paper towels are just so darn expensive!"

Grif sighed exasperatedly. He hated hand dryers. That is why he normally never washed his hands. He appealed to Colonel Sarge one last time, "So, I'm never going to actually do half the work as Simmons, huh?"

Sarge gave an evil and yet gleeful little chuckle and replied, "If I didn't know you better, I'd say you were getting smarter." The bright red armor-clad Colonel had been lecturing Grif with his shotgun clutched tightly in his hands the whole time. The old fool never let go of the thing. The always-present firearm did not even make Grif nervous anymore. It had been so many years.

"Fine, I'll get back to work, crazy old man." Grif rolled his eyes beneath his orange helmet and started to walk away.

"Excuse me?" Sarge yelled after him.

"I'll get back to work, crazy old man, Sir!" Grif repeated back over his shoulder.

"That's better!"

Grif plodded through the winding, creepy hallways looking around for anything valuable. He began to wonder where Matthews was. He could just get that kid to do all of the work for him. On second thought, Matthews would just find a way to mess everything up while simultaneously being extremely annoying. Grif really missed the days when Donut was the biggest idiot he had to deal with. After about ten minutes of exploring rooms, Grif was out of breath. He sat down for a minute behind a pillar in a giant atrium. Grif looked around to see if Sarge was watching. He was not paranoid, he just had been on the red team for a very, very long time and knew to never underestimate Sarge's ability to ruin breaks.

After about fifteen minutes, Grif heard a yell. He jumped to his feet, spewing apologies to Sarge. He soon realized that there was more than just one voice making noise; there were other voices, as well as gun shots. So, good, no Sarge. Grif thought to himself how there once was a time when he would not have cared about getting caught napping. He was not sure if he liked the new version of himself that actually sometimes cared about following orders.

Grif wished whoever was fighting would keep it down so that he could get some rest. Deciding that he might as well see what was going on, Grif turned and looked around the pillar to see two of his friends (well more like acquaintances) fighting with a strange, green-armored foe. Washington and Carolina did not look to be holding back on the stranger, and despite their incredible combat abilities, the newcomer seemed to have the upper-hand. With incredible speed, Carolina rushed the green foe, knocking the assault rifle from his grasp, she dodged expertly around his blows, landing hit after hit. None of her punches or kicks seemed to phase the green enemy, though. Carolina could not dodge forever, and when her combatant connected with her chest-plate, the force sent her flying backwards across the massive room. Washington ducked as Carolina flew overhead, firing steadily at the green stranger with his battle rifle. A flash of yellow energy appeared to block each bullet, proving the former Freelancer's efforts to be useless.

Grif wondered who the stranger could be. It looked like he was wearing the same Freelancer armor that Wash, Carolina, and the Reds and Blues had, but it seemed different somehow. The mysterious warrior looked to be as strong as, if not stronger than, the Meta, and whatever shield he was using seemed to be much more advanced the the bubble shields that Grif had seen freelancers use. Could this be another Freelancer or, maybe, another mercenary? Grif was almost starting to care a little bit.

With a leap, the green stranger closed the distance between himself and Wash, ripping the Battle Rifle from Washington's hands and breaking it over his knee. Wash quickly dodged backwards, out of range of his enemy's long, powerful arms. The black and yellow warrior then pulled a combat knife from a sheath on his leg and readied himself for attack.

"So, are we going to attack him together this time, or…" Washington started to ask. Before he could finish his sentence, Carolina charged past him to engage their enemy. "...Just rush in blindly one at a time to get pummeled," Wash finished his sentence with a sigh. Grif could see a faint blue light appear over her shoulder and a voice call out a reply to Washington.

"Sorry, buddy," Church's voice apologized, "She's in one of her competitive moods, right now. It's kind of terrifying!" Grif had forgotten that the annoying, mean blue guy was with the freelancer chick. Was he still calling himself a ghost, or is he an AI now? Grif did not really care.

"Well heaven help us, then, but we really need to coordinate to eliminate this target," Wash called back to Church, frustratedly.

"Dude, you wanna tell her that? 'Cause I'm not going to try to convince her."

Washington slashed at the green foe with his knife, who blocked the attack with an armored forearm. Washington retreated backwards before his enemy could retaliate, replying, "Come on, Epsilon! What are you afraid of? She can't exactly punch an AI!" Carolina ran and flipped over her combatant to kick him in the back to knock him off balance.

Church answered, "Let's just say that I don't want to end up in her desktop's recycle bin, okay?" Washington tried to take down his off balance enemy, bringing his knife down to stab the stranger in the back, but the green combatant extended his arm and thrust Wash out of the way like the former Freelancer was made of straw. The stranger regained his balance, and kicked his foot out to send Carolina tumbling as well. Both Wash and Carolina kept their distance from their foe for a minute, catching their breath. Grif wondered how somebody could possibly beat a guy that strong. He was just glad that it was not his problem.

"You wanna maybe come up with a plan now?" Wash called out to Carolina.

"Fine, Wash!" Carolina agreed begrudgingly. "Epsilon, what have you got for me?"

"Well, I don't know what to tell you," Church began. "This jerk's armor is a fortress, and there's no way to even think about damaging it until we break through his shields."

"So you don't have a plan?"

"Of course I have a plan! I'm Church! I'm too awesome to not have a plan! If we keep hitting him, his shield should break. My expert analysis shows that, for whatever reason, his shields have a weak point at the head area. Keep hitting him there, and the shield will break all over his body."

"Great! Get ready to put all your attention into my speed boost, Epsilon!"

Washington called out, "Hey! If you're just going to punch the guy, could you throw me your pistol? I'm a better shot than you anyways!"

"That's debatable!" Carolina objected, throwing the magnum to him anyway. She used her speed boost to charge the stranger at full speed.

"Oh, come on! Give me that at least!" Wash yelled, aiming the pistol at the stranger's head. Carolina used her momentum to slide swiftly between the stranger's legs, grabbing his knee as she passed and flipping onto his back. She began to punch the top of the stranger's head, each strike met with a yellow flash from the shield. Washington was having trouble getting a clear shot at the stranger with Carolina on his shoulders, but he did manage to fire a couple of rounds into the green warrior's visor area.

The stranger was able to get a hold of Carolina. Holding her by an arm and a leg, he lifted her off of his shoulders and slammed her body into the ground. Before the giant man could finish her off with a lethal punch, Washington fired three rounds into his shield, emptying the clip and knocking the stranger a step backwards.

"Here, catch!" Washington called out, throwing his empty magnum at the stranger. The adversary obeyed, catching the pistol by the grip with ease. The green warrior did not, however, see the knife that was thrown expertly right behind the pistol. Before the stranger could react, the blade had struck him right in the visor.

The energy shield caused Washington's knife to bounce off, but the green armor flashed yellow brightly for a moment, then sparkled and flashed with a hundred little yellow lights like frayed ends of string. It seemed as though the shield had broken.

"Shield's down!" Church yelled. "Assault rifle, there!" The AI fragment must have put a waypoint on the stranger's rifle which still lay on the ground where it had fallen, for Carolina rushed straight towards it with her super speed. The aqua-colored freelancer retrieved the assault rifle, and then began spraying bullets at her adversary. The green warrior leaped up into the air at an unbelievable height, dodging Carolina's bullets. He hit the ground hard, cracking the floor and sending both Carolina and Washington sliding backwards. The powerful combatant then rolled quickly behind a pillar for cover.

Carolina was about to rush him when Washington grabbed her arm, saying "Wait! We can't keep rushing in like this! This guy is too good!"

"I can beat him, Wash!" Carolina objected.

"Yes you can, with a plan," Wash persisted. "We've taken care of his shields, we just need to be careful if we want to finish him off." At that moment, the stranger stepped out from behind his pillar casually. A yellow wave washed over his armor.

"Yea, his shields are back up," Church declared.

"Great plan, Wash!" Carolina said sarcastically.

"His shield recharges!?" Washington exclaimed in disbelief. "How can it recharge? That is the most unfair shield ever! Of all time!"

That was when Grif heard the stranger speak for the first time. "Stand down, soldiers." The green man ordered with a deep, gravely voice that sounded more intimidating than his seven foot figure looked. "I'm here for Forerunner technology, and I will have it."

Church replied, "If 'Forerunner' means 'alien' then sorry, buddy, you can't have it. This is our stuff!"

"Chorus is a UNSC colony, and, as a representative of the UNSC I plan on searching these ruins whether you like it or not."

"You are from the UNSC?" Wash asked.

Carolina butted in, "The UNSC have abandoned this planet and left it to almost destroy itself in civil war, so screw you! Now, a couple of mercenaries are building an army of space pirates to come here and kill everyone, so, unless you're going to help with that, get off our planet and let us find the technology necessary for us to defend ourselves!"

"I am not here for your war," the stranger replied, "and I'm not here because the UNSC ordered me to be here. I'm here to find Cortana, and if you aren't happy with that then, fine, I can live with having to fight you." The stranger put his fists up, ready for a fight, and Carolina raised her assault rifle in readiness as well.

"Wait!" Washington yelled. "Did you say 'Cortana'?" There was no response from the stranger, but he had turned his helmet towards Wash and seemed to have his attention on him now. "Are… are you…" Washington began, unsure of himself. "Could you really be the Master Chief?"

"I am Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117, yes," the stranger responded simply.

"Carolina," Washington said to his companion excitedly. "This guy is a hero! He's the one who ended the Great War!"

"The one with the aliens?" Church asked.

"Yea!" Washington nodded, "I heard about him when I worked for the UNSC to track down you, Epsilon. He's a Spartan. The SPARTAN Program was a super soldier program that Project Freelancer was based on. That's why our armor looks like his."

"Yea, thanks for the history lesson, Wash, but, seriously, why does that matter?" Church asked.

"Because he's a hero, and we should help him!"

"He's trying to take Chorus' alien technology, Wash," Carolina objected.

"Well, I at least would like to know what exactly he wants. Maybe he can help us learn about this alien technology."

"I've got to admit it," Church declared, "Wash is right. Delta seems extremely interested in the fact that he called these aliens 'Forerunners.' This guy could teach us a few things."

Carolina sighed, "Fine."

"So how about it, Master Chief?" Washington asked. "Are you willing to at least meet with us and our other friends here and explain to us what you are after?"

Grif peered intently from his hiding place. He had to admit, he did care a little bit about what was going on now. He had not heard about Master Chief since back when he had heard something about Master Chief blowing up the whole Covenant armada. Was the Covenant the aliens? Ugh, he had completely forgotten about the whole thing, and it was too much work trying to remember.

The Chief had not answered Wash's question yet. Grif wondered what the intimidating soldier was thinking about. The Red Team member could not exactly see what the Chief was looking at because of his green helmet, but it seemed like the super soldier was staring at Church. Maybe Grif was just going crazy. Finally, Master Chief gave an answer.

"Fine, I will talk to you and your friends," the Chief declared. Suddenly, he was looking in Grif's direction. Spartan 117 grabbed the gun from Carolina's hands and fired a round at Grif.

"Oh shoot!" Grif exclaimed, ducking behind the pillar and covering his head with his hands.

"Contact!" Chief explained to the two former Freelancers. "Possibly hostile! Yellow armored soldier, listening to our conversation, positioned behind pillar at ten o'clock!"

"It's orange!"


	2. The Team-up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A team is formed to investigate the Domain temple on Chorus. Master Chief wants only the best, so there's no way that Grif could be chosen, right? Right?

Everyone had gathered in the atrium. Grif was starting to realize that he knew too many people. When did he get in this deep? All the Reds and Blues were there, as well as Dr. Grey, Jensen, Andersmith, Palomo, and Matthews. Bitters was nowhere to be seen. He was probably out doing nothing in a different part of the temple. Frustratedly, Grif realized that Bitters had once again out-lazied him. What was happening to Grif's reputation as a do-nothing slacker?

Washington was trying to coax answers from Master Chief. Unfortunately, he seemed to be a man of few words. They were able to learn that the Spartan had lost an AI who was much like Church. The Chief had thought that the AI, Cortana, was dead, but he was seeing visions of her. He had come to Chorus to search its plethora of what he called "Forerunner" temples. According to him, the Forerunners were an ancient race of aliens that left behind plenty of buildings and technology throughout the galaxy. The aliens that are seen today are called Covenant, and they are the ones the chief beat in the war.

"Dude, that makes so much sense!" Tucker interrupted. "That's why the aliens I was doing negotiations with back in the desert worshiped the ancient technology! It wasn't their stuff!" Master Chief did not ask anything about why Tucker had such a limited knowledge of a group of people he was leading negotiations with.

"That is also why Crunchbite was so mean!" Caboose yelled. "Because the Farm-Runners were the aliens who made the temples! People who make temples aren't mean!"

Simmons corrected Caboose, "Actually, lots of mean things were done in temples, Caboose. The Aztecs practiced human sacrifices in temples. In ancient Canaan…"

Grif couldn't take anymore, so he interrupted, "Man, you are such a nerd! Just shut up, Simmons. You are putting me to sleep! Actually, on second thought, keep going. I could use a good snooze."

Apparently, Washington was done listening to the Reds and Blues argue, because he asked the Spartan, "But why are you looking for forerunner technology on this planet, Chief? What did you see in your visions?"

"Cortana," Master Chief answered. "She said, 'The Domain is open. Chorus is next.'"

"The Domain? What's that?" Washington asked.

"That's what I'm here to find out."

"Honestly, I'm still having a bit of trouble believing the whole 'visions' story," Church declared. "Seems like it's just a cheap ploy writers use to get a plot moving forward. I mean, come on. Visions aren't real."

"Ha! Says the dude who's a ghost!" Tucker blurted.

"Tucker, I'm an AI. How have you forgotten that already?"

"Yes, an AI who has died," said Caboose, "because of accidents that were nobody's fault. That makes you an AI ghost!"

"I HAVEN'T DIED!" Church screamed. "Well, Alpha died, but I'm Epsilon. I just have his memories, but he's dead."

"Still more weird than visions, dude," Tucker declared. Grif rolled his eyes at the blues being idiots again. They always get involved in the stupidest stuff.

Suddenly, a high pitched voice called out, "Domain! I remember!" Everyone turned to look at the woman in the white and purple armor. Dr. Grey was excitedly flipping through her data pad, rambling almost too quickly for everyone to keep up. "Well, you said 'Domain, and at first I didn't really remember it, and I was thinking about domain names for my website for live-streaming bloody surgeries, but then I was like, 'wait, I've heard that word before!' Well, I didn't actually hear it, I just saw it, but I saw it in this temple's computer, because, you know, while you all were just looking around, I was doing the real work of searching through this computer. I saw something about the Domain in conjunction with one of the other temples, because we're starting to learn that each of these temples have a unique purpose, even though those purposes have been really hard to figure out without the help of some kind of AI that I have theorized exists somewhere in the temple system; we just haven't been able to unlock it yet, but anyways, I'm pretty sure I can find the Domain temple with the information I have here if I cross reference it with some of the information we've collected about the temples like I'm doing right now… There we go! I have it!"

"Where?" Chief asked bluntly.

"It's a desert temple on the equator. We haven't explored that one yet and I'm excited because I haven't ever had the chance to treat patients with heat stroke, but I'm sure it's going to happen if we go there!" Grif began thinking of ways to get out of going on the trip right away.

"I'm going alone," Master Chief stated flatly.

"No, you're not," Carolina objected.

"Yea, we want to know what's in this temple too, buddy," said Church, "and we will probably learn more about these Forerunners if we stick with you. You haven't been exactly forthcoming with information, and I get you need to put on your whole "strong and silent" persona, but we need to learn about the Forerunners in order use their technology. So, if that means investigating this temple with you, then we're going!"

"And I need to come too!" Dr. Grey spoke up. "No offense, but you are going to need some help from the smartest person on this planet if you want to figure out how that temple works, and if you don't take me, just know that I am pretty knowledgeable in how to make poisons and the food rations aren't exactly locked up!"

"Alright," Master Chief nodded, "But we are travelling light. The AI, the doctor, and your four best soldiers are all that I will allow."

"Ooh I wanna go!" Donut exclaimed, "I always wanted to go to the desert! It will be just like Aladdin! We can even sing the songs! I think I have one of those tiny vests he wears in the movie somewhere…"

The robot, Lopez, who was standing right next to Donut, said, "Me incinerados ese chaleco. Era tan pequeño que podía ver sus pezones cuando él llevaba. [I incinerated that vest. It was so small you could see his nipples when he wore it.]"

"No Lopez," Donut said, assuming he knew what Lopez was saying, "you can't wear it. I'm Aladdin! You can be Jazmine. Here, let me put this belly shirt on you."

"Por favor alguien me dispare. [Someone please shoot me.]"

"Okay, that settles it," Church declared. "Donut's not coming."

Things were starting to fall into place. The situation with the newcomer would soon be resolved, so Grif had lost what interest he had. Not wanting to even be put in the running as one of the four best soldiers, Grif decided to leave. Grif laughed to himself at the thought of being chosen, but he knew that the Reds and Blues were dumb enough to make a choice like that. Besides, his luck was terrible; better to just leave and take away the possibility.

Grif found a small room directly off of the atrium where the Reds and Blues had temporarily stashed all of the Forerunner technology they had found in the temple. The orange soldier found a long crate that had been filled with some ancient, grey and orange weapons. Taking the guns out, Grif lay down in the padded crate to take a nap. It had been much too exciting of a day for him. He accidentally bumped the lid of the crate while climbing inside, causing it to swing shut over top of him. The crate locked automatically, trapping Grif inside. Grif was not too worried. He was pretty sure there were holes in the crate so he could breathe, and someone was bound to find him eventually. This way, he was just that much safer from Sarge. Finally, peace and quiet was his. Fully content, Grif slowly drifted off to sleep.

Grif awakened to the sound of his crate being unlocked. Much to his dismay, the lid opened to reveal a bright red helmet peering inside.

"Great meanderin' meerkats! A stowaway!" Sarge exclaimed, raising his shotgun. "Should I shoot him?"

Carolina came into view behind Sarge. "It's just Grif," she sighed.

"Brilliant observation, Nancy Drew," Sarge replied. "I refer back to my previous question: should I shoot him?"

Church materialized above Carolina's shoulder, angrily yelling, "What the heck are you doing in this crate, Grif? This was supposed to be filled with alien weapons that would give us an upper hand against any space pirates that might be at the temple, not a bunch of fat stuffed into orange armor!"

Sarge continued, "Is that a no then? I've got plenty of ammo you know. Wouldn't be too hard to clean up the remains; it's already in a box."

Grif spoke up, "First: Sarge, point that gun away from me! Second: 'what am I doing?' What are you doing? I'm just trying to take a nap. Going around opening other people's sleeping crates and yelling at them for no reason is rude! Man, what is wrong with people these days."

Carolina grabbed the lid, and slammed it down onto Grif's head, locking the crate and causing Grif to see stars. He was trapped inside again, but this time he was not taking a nap. That made things different.

"Hey, not cool, guys!" Grif yelled, pounding on the lid of the crate. "Let me out of here!"

He heard the crate unlock again. The lid opened, but it was not Sarge or Carolina that was revealed this time. It was the Master Chief. The green soldier said nothing. He simply propped the lid open and walked away. Grif sat up.

"Uh, thanks," the orange soldier said. "Hey, where are we?" They were in a narrower but longer room that had a door on one side and rows of seats along both of the longer walls. Chief sat down in one of the seats and started polishing his assault rifle. Tucker was sitting across from him holding the encyclopedia he always used to hide the fact that he was actually looking at a dirty magazine. Sarge was still trying to convince Carolina that Grif should be shot, but Carolina was ignoring him, busily checking over the many weapons she had brought. Dr. Grey was sitting near the back of the room looking over her datapad.

Nobody had answered Grif's question, but he had soon figured out where he was. He had recognized that this was the back of a pelican, and that he must be on the way to that desert temple everyone had been talking about. He could not believe his luck. There was no chance the others would be willing to turn around and drop him off back at Armonia, so Grif was stuck here. Grif sighed audibly and climbed out of the crate. Apparently, he was going on a mission.

Grif headed for the door that lead into the Pelican's cockpit. Washington was flying, and Grif could see through the windshield that the sky was now black. Night had fallen. The former Freelancer looked up when Grif came up behind him.

"Grif! why are you here?" Washington asked.

Grif sighed, "One of life's great mysteries."

"I've got everything under control here, sorry," Washington said. "I know you usually are the pilot among the Reds."

"Oh, no!" Grif objected. "It's ok! It was never my choice to be the pilot."

Washington laughed, "It's never your choice to do anything is it?" He did not sound like he was making fun of Grif, just making an observation.

"Uh, yea," Grif said. "Pretty much."

"Sometimes, I respect that, Grif," Washington said. "It must be nice to not really worry about anything." Grif never thought that he would ever hear Washington say that he respected anything that Grif did. Washington was always trying to make the Reds and Blues into elite soldiers, and Grif was almost always diametrically opposed to that.

The radio in the cockpit buzzed. Doyle's voice could be heard crackling from the speaker. "Fireteam Red, this is Armonia. Come in please. Over."

Washington hit a button on the console and replied, "Reading you, Armonia. This is Fireteam… Red. Uh, why are we 'Fireteam Red'? Over."

"Colonel Sarge was quite insistent on the name. Over."

"I bet he was… Go ahead with the message, Armonia. Over."

"Our long-range scanners seem to be picking up some, er, aircraft headed your way. You should see them on your radar soon. Over."

Suddenly, red dots appeared all over the motion tracker on the cockpit's dashboard. Washington hit a red button, causing red lights to flash throughout the pelican and an obnoxious alarm to sound.

"Thanks for the early warning, Doyle," Washington said sarcastically. "Are they space pirates?" There was nothing but static coming from the radio. Washington repeated, "Are you there, Armonia? Are they space pirates?"

"Sorry, you didn't say over. Over."

"DOYLE!"

"Eh, sorry, Wash. They don't match any of the space pirate's known signatures. Could they possibly be UNSC ships here to help your new ally?" The ship shook from a hit from one of the unknown ships' weapons. Washington put the pelican into a barrel roll to avoid further fire, throwing Grif into the wall. Strange, blue flashes flew past the windshield.

"The flashing red light means 'buckle up,' Grif!" Washington shouted. "Get back there and find a seat!"

"How was I supposed to know that?" Grif protested. Master Chief shoved his way past Grif, oblivious to the violent motion of the aircraft.

"It's the Covenant," the Chief declared, pointing out the windshield at a strange, purple ship hurtling towards them. Grif could not keep his balance due to the ship's motion, falling to the floor and crawling to the back of the pelican. What was the point of inertia dampeners if he was still getting airsick?

"The Covenant!?" Grif heard Wash yell. "I thought you won that war!" Grif was somehow able to make it to a chair. He pulled himself up into the seat that was right next to Tucker; not exactly ideal, but now was not the time to be choosy.

Master Chief answered Wash, "It's complicated." Grif strapped himself in. He saw that Tucker was holding his encyclopedia with a magazine closed between the pages close to his chest.

"Protect me, ladies!" Tucker yelled.

Washington's voice screamed from the cockpit, "There's too many of them! I can't out-maneuver all of them!"

"Take the ship to the ground." Grif heard Chief say calmly. The green soldier remained standing in the cockpit, not making a move towards any of the seats.

The ship shook with hit after hit. The back hatch of the pelican tore open, revealing the dozens of purple craft on their tail. Washington must have been flying well, because the amount of firepower that was shooting at them could have easily destroyed the ship in seconds. The pelican was headed for a crash landing. The wind coming from the open hole was making it hard to breath. Grif was really wishing that he had found a different place to nap earlier.

"I love you, Carolina!" Tucker screamed. "I always have, baby!"

"I'll kill you, Tucker!" Carolina called back from her seat.

"Joke's on you! We're all about to be dead anyway!"

Sarge let out a lament: "I always thought that if I was going to die in the same ship as a Blue, I'd be the one doing the exploding! I just wish I could have killed one more Blue!"

"Yea? Well screw you, too!" Tucker yelled.

The ship began to catch fire. Grif began to wonder when they would hit the ground. That's when he heard the crash, and everything went black.


	3. Hot Sand, Hotter Lead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crashed in the desert with communications jammed, Chief and the Reds and Blues must plan their next move, which sucks because Grif hates moving. Hopefully no one tries to kill them while they are vulnerable...

Grif started to regain consciousness. He felt like he was smoldering. The heat was radiating down from the oppressive sun as well as emanating from the sand that he was lying in. Apparently, it was daytime again. His head ached.

"This sucks," he said to himself. Grif touched his temple and felt a bandage wrapped around his skull. Someone had taken his helmet off. It did not feel right to be without it. Looking about himself, Grif found his helmet lying in the sand a couple of feet to his right. Rolling on his side and grabbing the orange piece of armor, he shook it to get rid of any sand that was inside, and put it on his head.

Grif could see the pelican about ten yards away, partially buried in a sand dune, and still smoldering. Tucker was lying in the sand unconscious to Grif's left, and Dr. Grey was tending to him. Grif could see Sarge at the crest of one of the dunes, keeping vigilant watch. Sometimes Sarge's militaristic paranoia was actually useful, Grif thought. The star squad of Chief, Carolina, and Wash were discussing plans not too far away. Carolina seemed anxious.

"I don't like just sitting around like this," Grif heard Carolina voice her concern. "The aliens are bound to check the crash site to make sure we died."

"That's why Sarge is keeping watch," Wash said. "We can't leave now with Tucker and Grif unconscious."

"I say we leave them," Carolina suggested. "Grif was never supposed to be here, and the only reason Tucker made the cut is because there are no real soldiers on this planet."

Master Chief objected in his level, gravelly voice, "We don't leave a soldier behind."

"Is that what they taught you in the SPARTAN Program?" Carolina asked.

"Yes," Chief answered flatly.

Washington agreed, "Yea, we're not abandoning them, Carolina. Don't be ridiculous. Besides, Tucker has been showing plenty of initiative and promise lately, and Grif can sometimes surprise you. Well, 'sometimes' as in 'rarely,' and 'surprise' as in 'contribute slightly.'" Carolina did not argue any further.

After a few moments, Washington piped up, "About that SPARTAN Program; were you really abducted as children?"

"Yes," Chief answered.

"So, the people who did that… were they punished?"

"The program was under investigation. Dr. Halsey was imprisoned. The new Spartan IV's are trained more ethically, I am told."

"Yea, Project Freelancer was taken down completely. The Director lied to us, turned us against each other, and had us fighting his own personal battles when we should have been helping you against the Covenant. He pushed us past our limits, and most Freelancers broke because of it. They were good people before the Director got to them."

"Don't forget what he did to Alpha," Carolina mentioned.

"You know I can't," Wash suddenly snapped. "Both Epsilon and I are cursed with those memories." Church did not appear, staying quiet throughout the conversation.

"But we took him down," Carolina said finally.

"Yes we did," Washington sighed and nodded, "and, besides, what we went through is probably nothing to compare with your training, Chief. I mean, you were a child and they… well, it wasn't pretty from what I heard."

Master Chief was quiet for a bit. Eventually, he spoke, "Everything Halsey did to me was for a purpose. She made us strong to fight the Covenant. I had a reason to fight. Dr. Church did not give you that. So I do not envy you."

"Well, we have a reason now," Wash stated. "I fight for the Reds and Blues, my friends. I fight for the people of Chorus. Before I had them, I was a wreck." Washington laughed. "I used to be a real cynical jerk!"

"That hasn't changed!" Grif called out, "Training under you is worse than Sarge!"

Washington replied with a laugh, "You know, sometimes I think you just aren't that good of a soldier, Grif."

"Of course I'm not!" Grif declared.

Tucker suddenly stirred, moaning, "Ughhh, what happened?"

"I swear you say that more than your stupid, 'bow chicka bow wow,' catchphrase," Grif pointed out. "You get knocked out more times than Sarge comes up with crap plans."

"You got knocked out too, moron!" Tucker replied.

Grif chuckled, "Yea, except I didn't whine about it like a wus."

"Finally! You're both awake!" Dr. Grey exclaimed. "You both recieved concussions, probably because you were sitting right next to eachother and your heads collided."

"So my headache is from Tucker?" Grif interrupted. "That's nothing new."

"Anyways, I bandaged you up because there was a little bit of blood, but nothing serious, unfortunately. It was an easy procedure. Honestly, it would have been nice if it was a bit harder."

"Bow chicka bow wow," Tucker commented, "There, dude. You happy? Is that starting to balance things out for you?"

Grif answered, "I would like to point out that I never actually said that I liked your, I repeat, 'stupid' catchphrase. I just mentioned that you've said, 'Ugh, what happened?' almost as often."

"Oh really? Because last time you said that I said it more times. So, which one is it? 'Almost as often' or 'more than'?"

"You're an idiot."

Grif heard Carolina speak to Washington and Chief, "Well, they're awake, finally. We should get going."

Before either man could agree, Sarge interrupted, calling down from his dune, "Good news, dirt bags! I see the enemy!"

"What!?" Wash yelled, "How many?"

"One big, purple ship, and we all know purple is a shade of blue! So get ready for a fight men!"

Master Chief was already at the top of the dune beside Sarge. He called down, "Phantom headed this way. The Covenant wants to make sure we are dead."

"If we want them to keep thinking that we are dead, we should hide in the pelican!" Wash suggested.

"We better hide our tracks then!" Carolina added. Grif got up with an irritated grunt. Everyone was frantically smoothing out the sand around them. The orange soldier joined in half-heartedly, sure that they were all going to die no matter what they did. There was no time to do a perfect job on the sand, but they had covered almost every footprint. It had to be enough, because Grif could hear the Covenant ship getting closer. Everyone ran into the pelican in a single-file line with Carolina at the back, smoothing out their tracks as she walked.

The fire in the pelican had mostly died down. There was only a smolder in a few places. Still, the temperature was high in the pelican, making the hiding place extraordinarily uncomfortable.

"This sucks," Grif complained. Grif could hear the enemy ship hovering above. He found a hole in the side of the dismantled pelican to look through. He saw aliens dropping down to the ground from above. There were three giant ones that looked just like Tucker's stupid kid, but there were also about twenty small, pudgy aliens that Grif had never seen before. Once all of the aliens were on the ground, Grif could hear the ship fly away.

"Field Master 'Meram, the human ship is in flames. The weak creatures could not have survived," one of the large aliens spoke this to a hologram that had appeared in his hand. This one wore red armor; the other two wore blue. Grif knew that Sarge must be happy that the red one seemed to be in charge.

The hologram responded, "Do not bother to summon me, Major 'Chafum, unless you have searched the inside of the ship."

"Uhhhh, that's not good," Tucker commented.

"Give me your sword, Captain Tucker," Master Chief demanded quietly, holding out his hand.

"Dude, It's not going to work!" Tucker warned.

"Field Master 'Meram, forgive me," the red alien replied to the hologram. "I simply thought it was not worth the inspection. We were told that the inhabitants of this planet were particularly pathetic, even for humans, and-"

"I care not for your excuses, 'Chafum! Send me word once you have seen their charred corpses with your own eyes! That is all." The hologram disappeared. Apparently the boss alien had hung up.

Master Chief ignored Tucker's warning and grabbed the small piece of alien metal on the aqua-colored soldier's hip. He pressed the button that should have caused a blue plasma blade to appear, but nothing happened.

"Told you, dude!" Tucker whispered.

"What?" Chief muttered quizzically, "It's not extending."

"It's got to work," Carolina declared softly. "Did you try rubbing it?"

"That isn't working either," Chief whispered. "You try rubbing it."

Tucker commented, "Yes, rub his stick, Carolina."

"It's not working," Carolina whispered urgently.

Tucker whispered to Grif, barely restraining his laughter, "Dude, they really have no idea!"

"For Pete's sake don't say it," Grif commanded quietly. He was not worried about revealing their position as much as he was just annoyed by Tucker's catchphrase.

The red alien was walking up to the pelican now. He would see them at any moment.

Tucker commented again, "Maybe you should rub it faster."

"I'm rubbing it as fast as I can!" Carolina whispered angrily.

"I don't understand," Chief said honestly. "This usually never happens."

"Screw this, I gotta say it," Tucker said, grabbing the sword out of Chief's hand and activating it. "I don't seem to have any trouble getting it to come up, Chief! Bow chicka bow wow!" Tucker yelled this out, charging towards the back of the pelican just as the alien reached the hatch. The giant creature saw the Blue soldier too late. "Stab!" Tucker cried, plunging the sizzling plasma blade into the alien's chest.

"Great Jupiter Ascending!" Sarge cried. "I can't believe I let a Blue beat me to the first strike!" The Colonel cocked his shotgun and charged out of the pelican yelling, "Today is a good day to die!"

Church's small, glowing body appeared for the first time that day, laughing, "Well, I guess hiding is no longer an option!"

"Ready?" Carolina asked the AI.

"Let's do it," Church replied. Carolina and Church sped out of the pelican at super speed, with Chief and Wash running behind. Grif decided that someone had to guard the doctor, and that might as well be him.

Grif looked out of his little peep-hole. He was wondering why they had been hiding in the first place. The aliens were getting murdered out there. The small, pudgy aliens had scattered immediately after seeing their leader die. Sarge had caught up with one of them, spinning it around to shoot it in the face with his shotgun, splattering the ground in blue blood. Grif knew that Sarge did this because he did not approve of shooting enemies in the back. Carolina sped her way among four of the retreating little guys, brandishing two magnums and spinning about to shoot down all four of them. Tucker sliced the head off of another small alien, shouting, "Slash!"

The two large, blue aliens were putting up a fight, laying down suppressing fire to keep Chief and Wash pinned behind the cover of a chunk of ship. Washington fired his battle rifle, getting a perfect headshot on one of the blue aliens, only to have the bullets blocked by a flash of blue energy.

"They have shields too!?" Wash complained loudly. Without looking over his cover, Chief lobbed a grenade in the direction of the two aliens. The frag stuck itself into the sand right between them, and as the aliens rolled out of the way, Master Chief lept from his cover. The Spartan sprinted for one of the aliens before it could recover, spraying it with bullets from his assault rifle. The alien's shield flashed as it broke, but the alien was on his feet, firing blue plasma at the charging Spartan. Master Chief ignored the shots, letting his shields deflect the plasma. He brought the butt of his assault rifle down onto the alien's head with a violent force. From where Grif stood in the pelican, he could hear the blue creature's neck snap.

The other blue alien roared angrily at the death of his ally, raising his gun, only to have the weapon shot from his hand by a precise shot from Washington's battle rifle. Carolina and Sarge were occupying themselves with the many smaller aliens, but Tucker had come to join the fight with the last giant alien. He brandished his sword at the unarmed foe laughing, "Oh, ho, ho, this is going to be easy!" He swung his sword, but the alien dodged easily, causing Tucker to lose balance and bury his sword in the sand. The giant, blue alien raised a powerful, three-fingered fist to bring it down onto the overeager soldier, but the alien's fist was caught mid-flight by Master Chief. The Spartan held onto the alien's arm with one hand and with the other grabbed Tucker by the forearm, pulling his sword free of the sand along with his whole arm. Still holding onto the alien, Master Chief forced Tucker's arm upwards, lodging the sword into the giant creature's neck and lifting Tucker off of his feet in the process.

"Holy crap!" Grif exclaimed under his breath.

Atop a sand dune about fifty yards away, Carolina could be seen breaking the neck of one of the small aliens. "That's the last of them!" She called down.

"No it isn't!" Wash yelled, pointing to the last straggler, who was running away directly past Grif's hiding place. "Run Grif, catch him!"

Grif let out an ornery sigh, raising his battle rifle and shooting the little guy in the back as it ran past. He called out to Washington, "I'm sorry, but you must have me confused with someone who runs."

"Idiot!" Wash yelled, slamming his fist into the chunk of ship he had been using as cover. "He could have given us information!"

Grif laughed as he walked out of the pelican, saying, "Well, you can still ask him stuff! I'm just not too sure he's going to be very forthcoming now." Washington let out a frustrated yell, and threw his battle rifle to the ground. "Oh, you're serious," Grif said, suddenly a bit more apologetic. "Uh, I didn't know the little guy was so important."

"Of course I'm serious!" Wash yelled. "We have no idea how many Covenant there are, or what kind of weapons they have, or even what they are doing here!"

Grif crossed his arms defensively, arguing, "I have a great guess: they are probably at the temple, and they definitely want to kill us. Oh, and there's a lot of them, and we're probably going to die unless we give up and go home. How's that for information?"

Dr. Grey walked out of the pelican at that moment, saying, "Sorry! It doesn't look like we can leave! Something seems to be jamming our signal, so we can't call for help, and it's not like we can just walk back. We're in the middle of the desert, you know. I'm pretty sure whatever is jamming our signal is coming from the temple, and we can walk there in just a couple of days! Looks like we have to go to the alien temple full of dangerous aliens! How exciting!"

"Good," Chief stated. "Everyone pack up."

Sarge and Carolina walked up to the group. Sarge declared, "Can't wait to kill some more of these aliens! They bleed blue! How disgusting. Too bad for them I bleed red!"

Tucker commented, "Dude, every human bleeds red. It's nothing special."

"Which should show all of you Blues that you are on the wrong side!" Sarge replied. Then with a chuckle, "Nice come-back, Sarge. Dag nabbit, where is Simmons when you need him!"

Carolina was reloading her weapons. She commented, "The only sides are our side, and the dead side! I killed about fifteen of those aliens, by the way; In case anyone was counting."

Church laughed, "Yea, fifteen of the easy ones. Master Chief killed both of the big ones."

"I could have killed those!" Carolina snapped. "It was harder to round up all those little guys! I'd like to see anyone else do that!"

"Oh, I can't believe it!" Church declared. "You're jealous of the big guy; aren't you?" Church laughed, "You don't like being number two, Carolina?"

Carolina did not reply, simply staring at the AI silently.

"I'll shut up now," Church declared.

The team packed up their supplies from the pelican and headed out towards the temple. They had plenty of water, thankfully, but there was not much they could do for the heat. The sun beat down on the small line of seven travellers viciously. Grif was sweating profusely.

"This sucks," he whined, chewing on a protein bar from their military rations.

"Try not to eat all of our rations, Grif," Washington said. Grif looked at the former Freelancer, eying his choice in weaponry.

"Why aren't you a walking armory like the other two star players?" Grif asked Wash. The black and yellow soldier had only brought a battle rifle and his combat knife, compared to Master Chief's assault rifle, grenade belt, and the rocket launcher from the pelican that he had slung on his back; and Carolina's two magnums, battle rifle, and grappling hook.

"Sometimes subtlety and precision is best," Washington replied.

"I could not agree more, human," A base voice said from nowhere. Instantly, everyone in the group had their weapons ready, pointing in all directions. About ten aliens materialized from seemingly nowhere. Grif hated it when enemies used camouflage. The aliens had them surrounded. They were wearing bright red armor, and all of them had energy swords in their hands and plasma rifles on their backs.

"Hold your fire!" Master Chief commanded suddenly.

The leader of the aliens (the one who had spoken just a moment ago) stepped forward. He wore intricate golden armor, and he held a strange-looking, golden energy sword. Looking at Master Chief he said, "Greetings, Demon. It has been a long time."

"Arbiter."


	4. Temple Running

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grif learns way more than he ever cared to about the ancient aliens of Chorus, and with new allies at their backs, the Reds and Blues plus Chief must infiltrate the Covenant controlled temple. Warning: some red shirts may die...

Aliens. Aliens everywhere. Grif had not been around so many aliens since the desert, back when the aliens were worshiping Church. Now he was in another desert, and there were a bunch of aliens again. If he had to sit through another alien Church service, the deja vu would be unbelievably annoying.

"So, uh, we cool with the aliens, guys?" Tucker said nervously.

"I don't know, Tucker," Church said jokingly, "You might want to keep your legs together, just in case."

"Dude, that's not how that works," Tucker replied.

"Well then how does it work?" Church asked. Then he shook his head and said, "Wait, forget it. Don't tell me. That's still messed up."

The group still had not moved from where the aliens had surprised them. Everyone was eying the aliens suspiciously. Apparently, their leader, the one Chief had called "Arbiter," had noticed the humans' discomfort.

The Arbiter addressed the humans in his deep base voice: "You need not be wary of us, humans. We are the Swords of Sanghelios. We are sworn enemies of the terrorists known as the Covenant Remnant lead by Jul 'Mdama, and we are allies of your UNSC. It was 'Mdama's Covenant that shot down your ship, and they are no doubt at the temple right now, searching for the secrets that lie within."

Master Chief stated, "We were on our way to that Forerunner temple as well."

"Forerunner? You are mistaken if you believe any of the temples on this world are Forerunner."

"What do you mean?" Master Chief inquired.

"Yea," Tucker commented, "these temples look just like the Forerunner crap we found in that other desert."

"These temples may look Forerunner, but they were left here by ancient Sangheili," the Arbiter elaborated.

"Sang-what's-it-now?" Sarge blurted.

"My people," Arbiter explained. "In ancient times, when the Forerunners were at their peak. My people were mere savages. The Forerunners decided to experiment with cloning technology on my people. They took them away and uplifted them. They granted them Forerunner knowledge and technology. Eventually, they had a thriving civilization. This planet, the one you call "Chorus," was their home. My people have passed down legends of these ancient Sangheili. We have known them as Freiu Kel, or "borrowers of the light." Only recently have my people discovered ancient texts on Sanghelios that prove their existence. These texts have led us here."

Washington spoke, "But if your people only just discovered the Freiu Kel, how did the Covenant find out about them? why are they here?"

The Arbiter spat in the sand, saying, "A traitor; a degenerate piece of scum named Grevu 'Meram sold our secrets to 'Mdama and joined his Covenant. I have sworn to slay him with my own hand. That is why I have left my people, even though they are forever plagued by the myriad of Covenant factions that wish to take control of Sanghelios and its colonies, and I have followed 'Meram here. The hour of his doom draws near. I swear it."

Church commented, "That's all fine and good, Arbiter, but if these, uh, 'Kel' people of yours were so advanced, what happened to them?"

"They were used for cloning experiments, as I said. When their culture became autonomous, they continued the use of cloning for reproduction."

"Aw, dude, that sucks!" Tucker interjected.

The Arbiter continued, "Our historians have interpreted a text that seems to suggest that their genetic structure became degraded to the point where cloning was becoming useless to them. From what I can remember, they evidently had a few settlements on another planet. On this planet there was a ship; a banshee, I believe, that contained a pure sample of original Sangheili DNA. This DNA was so important to the Freiu Kel, that the writings refer to it as the "salvation and emancipation of their entire species for all eternity."

"Emancipation?" Grif spoke. "What? Were they slaves as well as dying?"

"Grif, haven't you been paying attention?" Sarge berated. "These aliens were going to die! They were fighting for their freedom from annihilation! Haven't you seen Independance Day? Freedom and not dying are basically the same thing!"

"Wow, that would make old age, like, the biggest oppressor of all time!" Grif declared.

"Hehe that's why I've said I'm 29 for years. I just believe in freedom so darn much!"

Washington interjected, "Please, both of you be quiet! If freedom and life were the same thing, no one would ever die for the sake of freedom."

Grif laughed, "Dude, I thought you had been with us long enough to know not to say anything that deep and expect us to understand it, much less care about it."

Washington shook his head, "Whatever, I don't care. Just finish with the story Arbiter. What happened to the ship?"

Arbiter continued, "Unfortunately, this ship could only be unlocked by a Great Key, an energy sword that could only be used by the Great One who retrieved it, after the Great One completed the Great Journey in accordance with the Great Prophecy. The comedy of the Freiu Kel's obsession with the adjective "great" is not lost on me."

"Oh shoot, that ship?" Tucker said. "I totally unlocked that already!" Tucker pulled out his sword to show the Arbiter. "There was this really annoying alien who helped me do that!"

"What happened to this alien?" Arbiter asked, suddenly interested.

"Dead."

"What of the ship?"

"Destroyed."

"Therefore, this quest of yours…"

"Failed."

"I see."

"So was that alien, like, the last of those ancient people or something?"

"It is possible that he may have been the last surviving Freiu Kel, but I do not know. I should consult a historian of my people before I make any assumptions."

"Eh, I know I asked, but I really don't give a crap, dude."

Grif was getting bored of the conversation. Listening to this history lesson was worse than hearing a nerdy monologue from Simmons. Still, it was nice to learn that Tucker was not just a regular screw up, but the kind of screw up who doomed an entire race of aliens to their death. That is what usually happens when people try to do stuff. They just make things worse; better to just not do anything.

Chief spoke, "Are you going to help us infiltrate that temple, Arbiter?"

The alien answered, "By 'infiltrate,' I assume you mean 'shoot our way in,' knowing you, Demon. I had hoped we could devise a more tactical plan than that."

"Shooting our way in does sound more fun," Carolina declared.

Church disagreed, "Oh I'm sure you would say that, but who's the one who has to track all the targets in a firefight and put waypoints on them? Not you!"

Sarge retorted "The shoulder angel doesn't like a good firefight, huh? Too many bad memories of Red Team fury back in Blood Gulch?"

Washington remarked, "Look, there's no doubt that things are bound to get messy within that temple and that there will be some violence, but storming the front door isn't a good idea. I agree with the Arbiter; we need a plan."

Tucker shrugged. "Eh, we always do fine when we just wing it, though."

Dr. Grey declared, "Wow, none of you can agree on anything can you? What an exciting train-wreck of a mission this will be!"

The Arbiter mentioned, "Grevu 'Meram's forces have us outnumbered at least 20 to one, and it is possible he has other allies besides his own soldiers."

"Even more exciting!" Dr. Grey cried out.

"Exciting?" Grif questioned, "We're doomed." Grif realized that he very well could end up dying in a desert. That was very far down the list of places he would want to die. On the top of that list was definitely on a couch in front of a TV, or maybe in a freshly dug grave; that way his body would not have to move anywhere to get buried. His body would be in death as it had been in life.

"Fine, Arbiter," Master Chief finally said, "Let's make a plan."

The Arbiter called out to his Sangheili warriors, "We rest here for now, brothers." The aliens started to find a place to sit in the sand as Arbiter began to sit down with the humans to come up with a plan. He had a map of the temple's basic layout that everyone could look at. The temple was huge from what Grif could see. Bigger than any of the other temples he had seen on Chorus.

Grif had lost interest in the conversation a long time ago, and he did not want to spend what was left of his most likely soon-ending life sitting in what was not much more than a more serious version of one of the Red Team's old staff meetings. Grif decided to meander off a few yards to take a seat next to one of the red-armored aliens. He was not feeling friendly, it was just that the large alien might just be casting a shadow large enough for Grif to use for shade. The aliens were removing their helmets to cool off as much as possible. Grif was a little grossed out by their weird, quadruple-mandibled faces. The alien that he had sat next to looked at him.

The alien spoke, "I heard the others of your kind call you Grif, correct? I am Jeg 'Resum. Tell me, human, is it your custom to always keep your head covered?"

"Woah, I'm not a terrorist if that's what you're asking," Grif answered.

"I am confused… It is just that I notice that all of the humans here refrain from removing their helmets, even in this heat. Maybe humans simply handle heat differently than Sangheili."

"Uh, yea, maybe," Grif shrugged, not putting much thought into it. He reached under his helmet to wipe the sweat that had been building up under his chin.

Sarge walked over to where Grif was sitting, muttering, "Dag nabbit! Those dirty Blues act as if they've never heard a decent plan before."

Grif sighed, "What was your plan this time, Sarge?"

"I just said that we could load the temple up with explosives to blow it sky high!"

"Right, remote detonate the temple that we came all this way just to explore."

"Of course not! Don't be ridiculous, Grif!"

"Of course. I'm ridiculous."

"We wouldn't remote detonate it!"

"Wait, what?"

"We have to explode it while we are close enough to have a great running shot! We will run away, arms pumping violently, while a blazing inferno erupts just behind us! Just like Tom Cruise would have done."

"How do you run like Tom Cruise?"

"Just do it in about 80% of your films."

The alien named Jeg spoke up, "I am confused. Is Tom Cruise a great human warrior?"

Grif answered, "Oh yea! One of the best! He even does all of his own stunts!"

Sarge added, "He's accomplished impossible missions; been involved in the War of the Worlds, which was really just the war of one world that got invaded; and even solved crimes before they happened in the far off future of 2054!"

"Is this not the human year 2558?" Jeg asked.

"Yes." Sarge said flatly.

The alien began, "How..."

"Whelp!" Sarge cut the alien off whimsically, "I think I might as well go put this bright sun to use and catch some rays over there!"

Grif spoke, "You're going to sunbathe?"

"You know what they say, 'Today's a good day to fry!'"

"In full armor?"

"Mhm, that's right."

"Permission to speak disdainfully, sir?"

"Permission denied; You're just jealous that I'm gonna be lookin 29 for the rest of my life! See ya, dirtbag!"

Grif sighed. He could not believe that these were the people that he was going to die with. The others were still debating a plan of attack, and it did not look like they would be leaving very soon. Grif eventually got so bored sitting there in the sand that he began to wish he could just do a timelapse in real life.

Tucker let out a low whistle. Grif thought there must be a woman around somewhere until he realized what it was that Tucker was reacting to.

"That's a lot bigger than I was expecting," Carolina declared.

"Bow chicka bow wow," said the guy who always does.

They stood on a sand dune, not fifty yards away from the temple which towered into the sky as far as the eye could see. There were huge floating sections of the tower too, which seemed like a complete waste of floating technology to Grif.

He commented, "I would like to point out that although we have been walking through this desert for two days, none of us saw the giant tower until right now."

"Huh, looks like there's no sign of the Covenant, looks like phase one of our plan where we take care of the guards at the gate is accomplished!" Church commented.

"I don't like this." Chief stated.

"It does seem like a trap," Washington agreed.

"We have no choice," Carolina declared. "We have to get in that temple."

"Then let us make haste to reach the doorway," said the Arbiter. "Keep to the plan, fellow warriors."

Grif was fine with following the plan. He was sure the plan was solid. It had some great minds behind it. The only problem was that he had no idea what the plan was. It was not that no one had told him the plan. Grif was pretty sure Washington had even run it over with him a second time, just to make sure everything was clear. The problem was that Grif had not paid any attention. Now seemed like a bad time to ask what the plan was, though, so Grif just followed everyone down the dune.

They reached the door of the temple. It was inset into the wall of the temple to make a tunnel from the door to the outside. Everyone got tight against the temple wall. Carolina and the Chief were on opposite edges of the tunnel, looking in with their rifles at the ready.

"Looks like there's nothing in there," Church informed everyone, from his perch on Carolina's shoulder. "The door is clear."

Carolina asked, "Can you access the door controls from here, Epsilon?"

"Pff. Is Caboose an idiot?" Church answered "Let me get to work." The little, ice blue hologram flew off to access the panel on the side of the door. Everyone else waited where they were, outside the temple.

"The door's locked!" Church called back.

"Unlock it then!" Carolina replied impatiently.

"Well, of course I'm already unlocking it. I was just letting you know what the delay is about! Done! Door is now openin- Oh crap!"

Grif could see bright bolts of plasma fly out of the tunnel. Apparently, the Covenant had been waiting for them. Carolina and the Master Chief were returning fire from their perches outside of the tunnel, and Washington and the Arbiter moved behind them so that they could fire their battle rifle and carbine respectively.

Arbiter cried out, "You avoid my wrath in vain, Covenant! This narrow tunnel makes aiming all too easy!"

"They're falling back!" Washington declared. "Everyone, follow us into the temple!" Grif was sure to be the last one into the tunnel, receiving a blast of cool air as he stepped inside the temple. The tunnel opened up to a hallway where everyone was finding cover. Grif had always wondered why there was always random things to take cover behind in these ancient alien buildings. He slid behind some cover, whatever the thing was, and fired his battle rifle at the aliens. Tucker was right next to him, firing his DMR. The noise from the rifle next to his head was deafening, even over the sound of everything else going on.

"Hey, could you not fire that thing right next to my ear?" Grif yelled at Tucker.

"Sure, dude, let me just stop shooting and let you miss all the aliens!" Tucker responded sarcastically. Now that they were all strung out in the hallway, the aliens were making a stand. Plasma was flying past, burning into the walls around. Grif had shot down a few of the small aliens, but there were three new, skinny aliens that had hand-held shields he could not shoot through. They were advancing on his and Tucker's position.

"Uh, guys?" Grif called out.

"How do we kill the ones with shields?" Tucker yelled.

The Master Chief suddenly appeared on the other side of Grif. "Jackals," he said. "Use a grenade, Captain Grif. Watch." The Chief pulled out a frag grenade and rolled it across the ground so that it went under the jackals' shields. It detonated, causing the jackals to shriek as they flew through the air.

"Nice trick," Grif declared.

"Yea, dude, anymore tips?" Tucker asked.

"Kill the elites, and the grunts will scatter," Chief answered as he reloaded his assault rifle.

"Uh, are the elites the big ones?" Tucker questioned, spamming one of those same big aliens' shield as he spoke, finally bringing the shield down.

"Yes," Chief stated, finishing the elite off with his rifle.

Grif sighed as he finished off an injured grunt who had almost crawled his way to their cover, "Oh, now he tells us the easy names. I've been learning to pronounce 'Sangheili' all day!"

There was plenty of enemies to fight in the hallway, but their forces were dwindling. There were definitely fewer aliens than the 20 to one that the Arbiter had mentioned. This must have just been the Covenant's gate keeping force. Grif hoped that more did not show up.

The grunts started running, and Carolina was after them, finishing them up as she had done before. Master Chief had just cracked the skull of the last elite with the butt of his assault rifle, and Washington was retrieving his knife from the neck of another. Grif saw that one of the Swords of Sanghelios had the last jackal impaled on his sword… from Sanghelios.

"Our enemies fall before us!" Arbiter declared, "All too easy. Now to execute the second part of our plan!" Two of the Swords of Sanghelios had died in the fighting, but besides that, there were no casualties. People started to move in all directions, and Grif had no idea what was going on. He just stood there silently, checking his pockets for any extra food.

Washington caught a glimpse of Grif doing nothing and walked up to him. "Grif!" he said, "Please tell me why you aren't doing your job!"

"Uh, right," Grif mumbled, "my job…"

Washington sighed and put his hand to his visor in exasperation. "You have no idea what you are supposed to do, do you?"

"Was I supposed to bring extra ammo again?"

"No! Just help strip the fallen Covenant elites so that the Swords of Sanghelios have disguises to wear."

Grif sighed, "Fine, I'll get right on that."

"Totally my idea, by the way!" Tucker declared as he struggled with the leg armor on a dead elite.

Grif, Tucker, and Sarge helped a few of Arbiter's elites with the scavenging, while the others made sure the area was secure. Dr. Grey and Church were trying to hack into the temple's mainframe via a local datapad, but with no success. Apparently, the temple's control center was closed off from the rest of the temple. The lack of interconnectivity in the place suggested that the temple was made specially secure against hacking.

"Good thing two of the elite's kicked the bucket," Sarge said to Tucker and Grif. "Looks like we only have nine disguises here."

"Aw, too soon, dude," Tucker replied.

"Why?" Sarge asked. "Despite the fact that they wear red, they're just aliens aren't they? Better them than us, I say."

Grif agreed, "Seriously, dude. They literally are red shirts. They are meant to die."

Once all of the Swords, including the Arbiter, were in disguise, they left to carry out reconnaissance on the enemy. Apparently, the bullet holes in their armor were not an issue. The Arbiter said that the terrorists often had damaged armor and that they would blend right in.

"So, are us humans going to just go wait outside, then?" Grif asked.

"Not on your life!" Carolina declared.

Washington explained, "We have some use. While we wait for the Arbiter to get a good idea of the Covenant forces, we are going to explore some of the outer areas of the temple and hopefully discover more about what this place is."

"Ugh, not once do we ever take a break?" Grif asked.

Carolina laughed, "Well anything's better than just standing around and talking."

"Easy there, lady!"

"Dude, did she just say that?"

"I can't believe it. The nerve."

Church explained, "Yea, seriously, Carolina; don't be so quick to judge standing around and talking. There's a certain simplicity about it that is beautiful. You wouldn't understand."

"Let's get moving," the Master Chief declared.

The group was on the move, staying to the outer rooms of the temple. They were ready for any Covenant that they might find. This plan was a great plan. They were all fairly capable soldiers, and there should not have been many Covenant in those outer rooms. The problem was that they were not prepared for other enemies besides the Covenant.

Grif heard a distinct charging sound, and before he could warn everyone, Carolina went down, struck in the back by something powerful. A black and green soldier appeared as he came out of active camouflage, already charging a second shot on his special, knock-out railgun.

"Carolina!" Washington cried out, taken completely off guard. The newcomer fired again, knocking Washington unconscious as well. The Master Chief charged their attacker like an armor-clad rhinoceros, but before he could crush the new opponent, a black and orange soldier leapt from behind a wall and blocked the Chief's punch with a light shield.

"Here, big guy, have a treat," the orange one said, tossing a small, round disk at the Spartan. The disk attached itself to the Chief, glowing orange and covering his armor in what looked to be white energy. The Chief looked down at himself confused and unable to move. "You like it? It's an armor restraint. Something I've been saving just in case I ever ran into a Spartan. It locks that fancy Mjolnir armor right up! Of course, I had no idea I'd be using it on the Spartan! It just makes this even more awesome."

"Silence, Felix," the green one said. "We have our mission to finish."

"Oh excuse me, Locus, for enjoying myself a little after taking down the Master freakin' Chief!"

"Take this thing off me, and we will see who takes down who," Spartan 117 threatened.

Sarge cocked his shotgun, saying, "The big fella's right. You ain't won yet, Felix the Cat!"

"Yea dude," Tucker echoed, drawing his sword. "We already beat you guys once!"

Grif sighed, "Here it comes."

Sure enough, at that moment about twenty black armored space pirates came running in from the shadows. Grif, Sarge, Tucker, and Dr. Grey were completely surrounded.

"I freaking hate these guys."


	5. Institutionalized

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Locus confronts Master Chief about being a soldier, and Felix blabs about their evil plan. Also, Grevu 'Meram gets his chance to throw in a bit of religious fanaticism. Can Grif and his friends escape the annoying monologues of villains?

"Well, that went well," Said the voice of Church, as his hologram flickered to life.

Carolina sat up and groaned, "Ugh, I can't believe we let them get the jump on us."

"We'll be more careful next time," Washington consoled, rubbing his head.

The former Freelancers had just regained consciousness. Coincidentally, Grif had just done the same. At least, he had just awoken from his nap. The group had been trapped in a small room of the temple, the way out blocked by an energy wall.

The Chief had been released from the armor restraint once the space pirates realized it was impossible to move him, since the Spartan weighed about half a ton. They were sure to disable his shield generator first, though. With that gone, it would only take a single headshot to kill him, just like everyone else. Grif seriously wondered what the point of helmets were if bullets could go right through them. He was sure Simmons would have offered up some nerdy explanation, so that was another reason to be glad that the dutch-irish soldier was not there.

Grif actually felt safer within the cell than outside, where he could get shot. He tried not to think about what the mercenaries were planning on doing to them, though. Maybe he would not feel so safe if he knew.

"At least we aren't dead," Washington finished his thought.

"Yea, why is that, by the way?" Church asked.

A deep voice issued from outside the cell, "Because the Covenant and my employer need test subjects. Consider yourselves fortunate." The black and green mercenary had been by the cell several times since they had been thrown in there. He did not say much, but always seemed to look at Master Chief for a while and then leave. The Chief never said anything to Locus, just stared silently back.

"Uh, yea, being called a 'test subject' doesn't make me feel very fortunate," Church declared. Grif could not have agreed more.

"But as Agent Washington has prudently noted, at least you are not dead."

Master Chief walked up so that he was an inch away from the energy wall, staring down at Locus. "What is your plan, mercenary?"

"You will just have to wait and see," Locus replied calmly. He turned and began walking away, but stopped to turn back and ask, "Master Chief, why are you here?" Master Chief said nothing, merely staring back in silence.

"Am I right to assume you are not on a mission then?" Locus asked.

"I'm here to recover something I lost."

"So, it is as I feared," Locus sighed. "You have abandoned your orders to seek after your AI, Cortana, haven't you?"

"How do you know about…" Chief began.

"I know everything there is to know about the Master Chief!" Locus suddenly shouted. "Spartan 117: the hero of the Great War. When I fought in the UNSC, the Spartans were all that I looked up to. I refused the offer to become a Spartan III, because I believed they were an insult to the Spartan name. Nothing could compare to the Spartan II's, in my eyes. Then you, one of the last surviving Spartan II's, ended the war, and I went to work as a mercenary. I never stopped trying to become the perfect soldier, who followed orders without question, because that is what you inspired me to become. Now I see how foolish I was."

Washington piped up, "Don't listen to this guy, Chief. He's insane. He's given me basically the same speech multiple times."

"Do not compare yourself with him, Agent Washington," Locus reprimanded. "You may have been a great soldier once; smart, determined, skilled, and always following orders without question. But Chief was the soldier. He was the perfect example of what a soldier should be. Now I see that he has become distracted by his 'friends' just as you have." He turned to Chief, and walked right up to the energy wall to stare him down. "You have grown soft. I see now that I have outgrown you, and that I need look up to no one now. I will never let attachments to others distract me as it has distracted you. My focus will never waver." Locus began to walk away, obviously finished with the conversation.

Before the mercenary had walked far, Master Chief called after him firmly. "Locus," he said, stopping the mercenary in his tracks. "I am very focused. If I need to step over your corpse to get to Cortana, it will happen." Locus continued to walk away, but Grif could tell that his walk was just a little bit slower and less confident than it had been a moment ago.

Grif looked around at his friends. Everyone was staring silently at the Chief. No one said a word until Tucker finally blurted, "Dude, that was some epic, Liam Neeson-level crap right there."

Sarge turned to Grif, saying, "Grif, remind me to never get in between those two."

Grif answered, "Hey, Sarge, never get in between Locus and the Chief. Well, mission accomplished. Time to take a break."

Master Chief had not moved an inch since Locus had left. He stood close to the energy wall, staring through its transparent blue sheen. Seeing the Chief stand there so still made it seem to Grif as if the Spartan was no longer a man but a heroic statue, instead. How pathetically cliche.

Washington approached Master Chief cautiously. He stood next to the 7-foot soldier and whispered, "He's wrong, you know. Friends do not make you less of a soldier, and they certainly do not hold you back. Friends are what separate soldiers from monsters."

"I know," Chief said flatly.

Washington paused, then spoke again so softly that Grif could barely hear him, "You must miss her very much, don't you? I have lost friends, too. The difference is that I will never be able to get them back. I can help you get your friend back, though. I swear that we will find out what the Domain is, Chief. You will see her again."

The Chief said nothing, but his helmet moved to look at Washington. The Spartan placed a hand firmly on the former Freelancer's shoulder. Basically, the greatest display of affection and gratitude any man is capable of showing another.

"Eureka!" a high pitched voice suddenly shrieked. Grif sighed and rubbed the side of his helmet where his ear would be. Dr. Grey continued, "I've found the control panel for the energy wall! It's right against the wall on the other side. If we find something that we can force through the energy, it won't be hard to reach it!"

"I can reach it," Master Chief declared, making a fist with his hand.

"As fascinating as it would be to see the damage that would cause your hand, I don't think that is a good idea. It will burn right through your armor in seconds, and it would take an incredible amount of force to penetrate it, but I see that that does not worry you in the slightest! Ok! Well, before we try this we should at least fix your shields. That might be enough to protect your armor from damage."

"Wait, so, are we really doing this?" Church asked incredulously.

"Yes," Master Chief answered as Dr. Grey began to work on the back of Chief's armor, searching for any severed wires.

"Well, fine, then I'm helping," Church declared as he floated over to where Dr. Grey was working. "It looks like they may have done more than just cut wires. They found a way to disable his shields within the system. The wire cutting was probably just to make sure they could not be reactivated."

"Wow, these guys really don't want the big guy to be operating at full potential do they?" Dr. Grey commented.

"Yea, I wonder why," Church said sarcastically. "Let's get to work, and could somebody stop Sarge from reaching through my body?" Sarge had an arm through the hologram of Epsilon to fiddle with the back of the Spartan's armor.

Dr. Grey shrieked, "Get out of the way, Colonel! I know pressure points!"

"All right little lady, you win," Sarge conceded, backing away from the Chief, "but I couldn't help but notice that his shields could receive a huge boost if we diverted power from the 'LS' system."

"That stands for 'life support,' Sarge," Church explained.

"I know," Sarge replied.

Church stopped what he was doing and turned around. "Uh, then you should know, Genius, that if we diverted power away from that, he would suffocate in his own armor!"

"Well the man can hold his breath can't he?" Sarge pointed out.

"You know what," Church said frustratedly, "I don't have time for this. Just shut up and hang out with the other idiots!" Church turned back around to face the green armor.

Grif piped up, "He's already hanging out with the idiots. He's with you isn't he?"

"Oh I'm sorry," Church replied facetiously, "Did you want to come over and fix Master Chief's armor for me, then? Or are you too busy hiding extra food rations."

"Whatever dude," Grif rebuttled, "We all know the only reason you've taken to the whole 'AI' thing so hard is that you always sucked at being a soldier."

Tucker joined in, "Seriously, dude! You were the worst shot I've ever seen! You couldn't figure out how to use the sniper rifle after like 9 years!"

"Even Grif is a better soldier than you were," Carolina agreed.

Church replied, "Oh, come on, you didn't even know me when I had a body, Carolina."

Washington explained, "Uh, she may have heard a few stories of your poor marksmanship."

"Fine!" Church confessed, "Maybe I wasn't the best shot. Now, can all of you shut up and let me finish?"

"Bow chicka bow wow."

"I hate you."

Church and Dr. Grey had not been working more than an hour when Grif heard footsteps. It was actually more like marching. A large group was headed their way. Grif assumed that it was time to get killed.

Grif could barely hear voices talking in the distance. "This 'gift' of yours had better justify disturbing me from investigating the temple, mercenary. We are so close to unlocking all of its secrets," Grif recognized the voice he had heard giving orders to that elite back at the crash site in the desert.

"Now now, pincer face, don't be impatient. This temple isn't going anywhere you know," Felix's unmistakable voice echoed through the halls in response.

"I would advise you not to speak condescendingly to me, human. I killed many of your kind during the war." Their voices were growing louder as the footsteps approached the cell.

"That's funny, I killed many of your kind in that same war. Small world. Wanna compare kill counts?"

"Enough joking! The humans have infiltrated this holy temple, and have killed the forces I had stationed at the gate. I suggest you take this situation seriously."

"Hm, It's funny you should mention them." The orange and black mercenary suddenly rounded the corner to come into view of the cell. A tall elite was beside him, and there were more elites and space pirates behind. "That just so happens to be what I wanted to show you."

As the two approached the cell, the tall elite who had been speaking with him exclaimed, "The humans! You have found them."

"Invaders subdued, and test subjects found: two birds with one stone!" Felix gloated.

The elite he was walking with stood about 8 ½ feet tall, with golden armor and a large, golden helm that rose up in a crest at the back and had some sort of a unicorn-horn thing sticking out at the front. Where his left eye should have been was instead a large, angry scar. When he and Felix had reached the laser wall, he opened his mouth to speak, but then stopped when he saw the Master Chief.

"The Demon!" the elite exclaimed.

Washington whispered, "No one seems to care about us anymore."

Carolina whispered back, "They don't need to care about us. They just need to die."

"You're Grevu 'Meram, aren't you?" Chief asked the big elite. "I have a friend who wants to kill you."

"You speak of the false Arbiter, correct? He is too far away to touch me, sadly. I admit, I would welcome the chance to kill him myself."

"It may happen sooner than you think," Master Chief commented.

'Meram turned to Felix, "Why do you keep the Demon here? He should be executed this instant! The threat he raises is too great."

"Easy there, golden boy," Felix persuaded. "I captured the Master Chief, and so I get to decide what to do with him. My employer wants to cash in on some ransom money that the UNSC would be happy to pay for their hero, so we're going to keep him, and you are going to let us. Otherwise, you can look elsewhere for test subjects."

"Fine, mercenary," 'Meram conceded, "but you will regret this decision when the Demon devours you and your men."

"I've already seen his bite," Felix gloated.

Master Chief spoke, "No. You haven't."

The room had filled up with enemy soldiers. There was about ten space pirates, as well as eight elites. Grif also counted fifteen grunts and ten jackals. Hopefully, they were not planning on staying. This escape plan needed to work. Grif was way too young to die.

Washington approached the laser wall, and got the attention of Felix. "Felix, what do you mean by test subjects? What experiments are you doing? Just tell us."

"Oh that's rich," Felix laughed. "Agent Washington is complaining about somebody else being too cryptic! That's hilarious." Felix laughed some more, irritating everyone in the cell. "Look, it's a secret. I can't just reveal my evil plans to you." Washington stared silently at Felix in response. "I mean, I know you guys are trapped, and it won't make a difference, but it's kind of a surprise!" Washington remained silent. "Ok, ok, fine. I can't hold it in any longer. I've got to tell you guys. It's just too priceless. Well, this world was apparently controlled by ancient elites, or Sangheili, or whatever they like to be called."

"We know all that," Grif interrupted, "Get to the good part!"

"Whatever you say," Felix shrugged. "Anyways, most of these temples were made by the ancient elites after the Forerunners had left them alone, but the Forerunners must have had a base for their experiments while they were still here. That's what this temple is. It's where the Forerunners began their experiments with cloning technology." Grif realized the Arbiter was wrong about this not being a Forerunner temple. According to Felix, this was a Forerunner temple, technically. It was just all of the other temples on the planet that were from the Freiu Kel. "Now, sure, the Forerunners uplifted those elites to create a super advanced elite race, but they were primarily used as test subjects for cloning."

"What does that have to do with us?" Washington asked.

Felix laughed, "Oh this is where it gets good. You see, they succeeded in cloning, and the ancient elites continued to use cloning for thousands of years. The catch was that in order for the cloning process to work, they needed to implant clone embryos into another living creature in order to sustain the baby as it grew. Now, the ancient aliens usually just used animals, but there aren't any animals around here, so we're probably just going to use you." Felix laughed again after he finished his sentence.

It dawned on Grif what was happening. The mercenaries and the Covenant were going to do to all of them what had happened to Tucker. They were about to all catch pregnancy.

"Why are you doing this?" Washington asked.

"Isn't it obvious? The technology was supposed to be able to grow a clone in a matter of days, and after birth, the clone usually grew into adulthood in just days after that. After we use you guys to test it out, and we can figure out how this beautiful process works, we can find a bunch more test subjects and be raising full-grown soldiers in a matter of weeks! The process also allows for genetic memory to be passed down to the clone, so imagine taking one trained mercenary and copying him over and over. No extra training required! Saves a lot of time and energy, I'm sure you can appreciate that, Grif."

Carolina spoke, "Let me guess: you're going to be making copies of yourself to hang out with so that you can have some friends?"

"Na, there can only be one me," Felix laughed.

"Locus then?" Tucker asked.

"No!" Felix said, suddenly a bit nervous. "No. Just, no. We just need regular, trained soldiers."

"Felix!" Locus' voice echoed through the room. "Why are you talking to the prisoners? They do not need to know our plans."

"Speak of the Devil," Felix muttered.

Before Felix could answer, 'Meram addressed Locus, "Human! I trust that since you are here, you have information from our scientists?"

"Better," Locus replied, reaching into a pocket in his armor and pulling out a syringe. We have our first prototype. This contains an embryo that can be injected into one of our test subjects."

"Excellent! This clone will be Sangheili, yes?" 'Meram asked.

"As per our agreement, of course."

Felix looked into the cell. "So, who are we going to pick as our lucky winner?"

"It doesn't matter," Locus responded. "Just take any of them."

"Take me!" Washington declared. He stood confidently in front of the others, offering himself up. Grif knew that it really did not matter. They were all going to be experimented on eventually, but, still, it was admirable of Washington to be willing to make the sacrifice.

"What are you doing?" Carolina asked.

Washington whispered, "Just fix the Chief's shields, ok?"

Elites and space pirates lined up in front of the laser wall, guns raised. They were well aware that although the prisoners were unarmed, they were still dangerous. Locus went to the control panel and shut down the energy wall. Washington walked towards two elites who were waiting for him. They grabbed him roughly by both arms, and lifted him off the ground.

"No! Stop!" Carolina shouted, stepping forward. 'Meram had a needler trained on the prisoners, and he fired a round into Carolina's right arm, stopping her in her tracks. She screamed in pain, but quickly pulled the pink crystal from her arm and threw it against the wall before it could shatter and do even more damage.

Washington was carried away, and the laser wall went back up. The former Freelancer was dragged into the middle of the room outside. It looked bad. The prisoners were helpless within their cell.

"Dude, this is going to suck for him," Tucker declared. "It's not the worst thing in the world, though."

Grif replied, "Uh, you know he could die, right? They don't know what they're doing, that's why they need us for guinea pigs."

"Oh crap." Tucker suddenly seemed worried, he went up to the laser gate and shouted at their captors. "You had better not kill him! I just recently worked super hard to get him back!"

'Meram had the syringe in his hand. He had ordered the elites to force Washington to his knees. He spoke, "The Freiu Kel were blessed with great knowledge and power from the Forerunners. I pray that the Forerunners deem our Covenant worthy of the same gifts." Grevu 'Meram held the syringe aloft and yelled, "Today we take our next step closer to an army worthy of fulfilling the Great Journey!" The Covenant in the room cheered, but not for long. Before 'Meram could insert the syringe, a beeping noise interrupted him. He activated his hologram communicator, and an elite appeared. Sounds of plasma gun fire could be heard from the communicator.

"Fieldmaster 'Meram!" said the voice on the hologram. "We are under attack! The Swords of Sanghelios have infiltrated the temple control center!"

"How can this be?" 'Meram asked urgently, "Where did they come from?"

The hologram fired a few rounds from his concussion rifle before responding, "It seems they were disguised as Covenant, Fieldmaster!"

"I am on my way! Neither retreat nor surrender are acceptable, the Forerunners will it!" 'Meram shut off his communicator and turned to his troops in the room. "To me, Covenant! We have heretics to slay!" The tall elite then shoved the syringe into Felix's hands. "Guard the prisoners, mercenary. Do not begin the test without me." He then left the room with his soldiers in tow.

"Well, that was close," Church declared.

"I'm not sure Washington is safe yet," Master Chief warned.

Sure enough, the Chief was right. Felix looked around at the other space pirates and chuckled, "If the alien thinks I'm gonna wait around for him, he's dumber than he is ugly. Hold him down." A couple of space pirates grabbed Washington, and other eight had their guns trained on him.

"Felix…" Locus began.

"Oh, don't start with me, Locus," Felix retorted. "I don't care about what 'Meram wants. What's he going to do? He needs us!" Felix approached Washington with the syringe in his hand.

"No, stop!" Carolina yelled, sprinting at the laser wall. The wall threw her backwards and caused her armor to steam from the heat of it.

"We've got to do something!" Tucker declared earnestly.

Master Chief asked, "ETA on my shields?"

"Not done," Church answered, his hologram flickering. "Um, ouch, by the way. You realize there's two of us in your armor, right Carolina?"

"Sorry, your shield is still disabled," Dr. Grey confirmed.

"Fine," Chief stated. The Spartan braced himself against the side of the cell where the control panel was. With his right hand on the wall, he put all of his strength into his left hand and forced it into the laser wall. All of the prisoners gasped as the laser wall sparked and buzzed where the Spartan's hand was. Felix and Locus turned when they heard the beep of the control panel.

"No freaking way," Felix exclaimed. An aqua colored blur flew from the cell before the mercenaries had time to react. Carolina used her momentum to jump, and kick a space pirate in the chest with both feet, sending him and the three other black armored soldiers behind him flying to the other side of the room. Washington shook his arms free of the two mercenaries holding him, grabbing each by a shoulder and using them to boost himself into the air while simultaneously smashing their helmets together. One of the space pirate's DMRs slid across the floor to where Tucker was, and he picked it up and shot an enemy in the visor. Sarge charged a space pirate who was about to shoot Carolina. He punched the mercenary once in the gut and once more in the face, dropping the soldier to the ground. Another of the space pirates got it into his head to try and shoot Dr. Grey, who was still in the cell. Grif saw him aiming and sprinted at him, tackling him to the floor. Dr. Grey ran up and began beating the tackled space pirate senseless while Grif caught his breath. Carolina knocked the syringe out of Felix's hand causing it to shatter on the floor. Felix attacked the former freelancer in a rage, but Carolina dodged and delivered a roundhouse kick to the back of the mercenary's helmet. Tucker moved in an attempt to get an angle to shoot Felix, but he was met with Locus, who sent the aqua-colored soldier rolling with a single punch.

"He's still alive!" Locus exclaimed, as the Master Chief staggered forward. The Spartan's armor was charred on the left arm, and his whole armor sizzled and sparked as if it was shutting down, but he kept moving. "You're armor has lost power, and your arm is most likely burned. Why would you do that to yourself to help someone who you barely know?" The Master Chief said nothing, but continued to stagger towards Locus. "Stop this, Chief. You have no shields, and you're armor is holding you back more than it is helping you in it's low power state. You shouldn't even be able to move!" Chief plodded forward with no sign of stopping. "You don't even have your precious AI that you need so much! Fine! I will end you if that is what you want!" Locus closed the gap between him and the Chief, winding up for a punch that would have killed a normal man.

The Master Chief never was a normal man. The Chief caught Locus' fist in the air with his hand. The mercenary grunted as he tried to free his hand from the Chief's grasp, but the mercenary overpowered him.

"I may need Cortana," Chief spoke, leaning in close to the mercenary, "but I don't need Cortana to be a soldier, and I don't need her to beat you."


	6. Some Bad Guys Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fight is almost over. Chief, Arbiter, and the Reds and Blues push towards a final confrontation with their enemies. Grif, meanwhile, contemplates whether or not Twinkies are going to be discontinued for real this time.

At that moment, Simmons and Donut were currently safe back in Armonia. Simmons was probably doing something totally boring and embarrassing, like being helpful, and Donut was most likely getting everyone to second-guess his masculinity with how he was choosing to decorate the armory. Grif was not sure what made him more mad: that he was currently dodging death at every corner while the people he hated were back home safe, or that Simmons and Donut were most likely in the middle of wasting that safety by doing stupid stuff. It was not fair. Grif would be using that relaxation to its maximum potential.

Grif ducked as Locus flew over his head, apparently thrown by Master Chief. Grif doubted that the Mercenary was thinking he was the better soldier at that moment. Locus slid to a stop before scrambling to his feet and running after the rest of the space pirates who were already retreating. Felix had called for backup, and he had the mercenaries falling back. While Tucker, Sarge, and Carolina continued to fire their salvaged weapons at the retreating enemy, Wash and Chief found where everyone's confiscated weapons had been stashed.

"Yo, is my sword there?" Tucker called over his shoulder after he shot a merc in the back of the leg.

"Yea, it's here, Tucker," Washington called back. "It's not like they could have stolen it, you know. You're the only one who can use it."

Tucker laughed. "Oh, right, like that's ever stopped anyone from trying to take that thing."

Wash passed out weapons to everyone. Grif rolled his eyes after seeing Sarge embrace his shotgun and start whispering intimately to it. The orange soldier picked up his battle rifle. For being reunited with something that he usually held 24/7, Grif really did not feel anything special at all.

"Great," Carolina declared after being reunited with her arsenal. "Let's go." She took off in the direction of the retreating mercenaries.

"Where are you going?" Washington called after her.

"We got them where we want them!" She yelled back.

Washington sighed in frustration. "Ok, Dr. Grey. Stay with the Chief and see if you can get his armor working again. The rest of you, let's go make sure she doesn't get killed." With that, Washington started to run after Carolina.

Grif spoke, "Uhhh, someone should probably stay behind to guard these two..."

Tucker yelled at Grif before taking off, "Dude, it's the Master Chief. Let's go."

Sarge, Tucker and Wash were gone. Grif looked at the Spartan.

"Go." Chief commanded.

Grif sighed and started to jog after the rest of the group. Why did they have to run? He was positive that the mercenaries were probably going to just attack them later anyways. They could just wait for them comfortably.

After taking several breaks along the way, Grif finally caught up to the others. They were in the middle of another firefight. Grif collapsed behind some cover and gasped for air.

"Well, hurrah. We're saved." Sarge said sarcastically, "The freakin cavalry's here."

"Screw… you… sir," Grif managed to get out between breaths.

"Something's going on," Church declared, as bullets whizzed harmlessly through his holographic body. "The mercenaries are doing something strange."

Grif laboriously rolled himself onto his back and sat up with a grunt. He peered over his cover and saw that the mercenaries were breaking ranks. The space pirates had stopped firing to let someone through to the front of their line.

"Cease fire!" Washington ordered, "I want to see this."

Everyone lowered their weapons and watched as a new mercenary made his way to the front. The man had black Wetwork armor with blue accents.

"You will come no further!" the new baddie said in the most cliche way possible. "I will destroy you!"

"Who the heck is this guy?" Grif asked.

The villain responded, "Oh, um, I'm Seth. I'm a mercenary like Locus and Felix, and I'm an OC, so don't steal, okay?"

"Ugh that is awful!" Carolina declared.

Tucker laughed, "Ha! Lame!"

"So embarrassing," Grif declared, shaking his head.

Washington added, "How are you original? You look just like Locus and Felix, you just have blue accents instead of green or orange!"

The Seth guy answered, "Well, I have a signature weapon, like every OC should have. It's a Halo: Reach grenade launcher! See? That's pretty unique!"

Church laughed, "Dude, that is like the worst signature weapon ever! It was so lame it only lasted one game!"

"Yea, that's what makes it unique!" the idiot said defensively.

"No," Church explained, "That's what makes it so lame that it only lasted one game."

Carolina asked, "What are you guys talking about?"

Seth continued, "Uh, well, fine then! I also have a pretty creative backstory! I was actually a Freelancer. My name was Agent Rhode Island..."

"Oh gosh, no." Carolina said, facepalming.

"I had an AI named Kapa..."

"What?" Church interjected, disgusted.

"He was Alpha's hunger, so it made dieting really hard…"

"Please, just stop, dude," Tucker pleaded.

"Wait, wait. Before that I was actually a Spartan III! Ha! Didn't see that coming did you guys?"

"Someone gonna kill this dirt bag now, or what?" Sarge asked.

In answer to all their prayers a green super soldier emerged. It looked as if Dr. Grey had restored his mobility. Master Chief marched straight towards the "original" character without saying a word.

"Oh shoot!" Seth exclaimed in terror, firing his grenade launcher. The grenade bounced off the ground at the Spartan's feet and exploded harmlessly in the air.

The Chief grabbed the pathetic mercenary before he could escape, lifted him up over his head, and dropped the idiot onto his knee, breaking the mercenary's back and killing him.

It was a rare and beautiful moment of unity as space pirates, simulation troopers, and former Freelancers all stood up as one to applaud the heroic actions of the Spartan.

Grif could hear Washington sniff amidst the loud cheers, as if the Freelancer was holding back tears. "Thank goodness," Wash declared. "That was the lamest character ever."

After a pause, Tucker looked at Washington and asked, "Dude, are you going to finish the line?"

"What line?" Wash asked.

"You know, 'That was the (blank) ever, of all time.'"

Washington shook his head. "Why? Do I say that a lot?"

"Uh, yea. It's kind of like your 'thing.'"

The cheering had died down. Everyone looked at each other awkwardly for a moment. Then, suddenly, a gunshot was heard, and a mercenary hit the floor, dead. All eyes turned to Grif, and Grif looked down at the smoking BR in his hands.

He looked back at everyone else and shrugged. "What? Are we not fighting anymore or something?"

One of the space pirates also shrugged and declared, "Heh, he's got a point," and he fired a shot at Carolina who ducked out of the way.

There was a brief pause, and then the hall of the temple erupted once more into gunfire. Gunsmoke filled the room, blocking most of the visuals except for the bright muzzle flashes. Grif's ears were ringing from the constant barrage of noise. When the smoke cleared, though, every space pirate lay dead on the ground.

"Check the bodies!" Carolina ordered. "I want to see Locus's and Felix's corpses!"

Everyone looked over the space pirate remains, but the evil duo were nowhere to be found.

"Man, this is bull crap!" Tucker exclaimed. "Why won't those guys just die already?"

"We'll get another shot at them, Tucker," Washington reassured. "Just be patient."

Grif took this opportunity to sit down away from the others and break open a box of twinkies. For the last 500 years Hostess had announced the cancellation of twinkies 299 times. They have also brought twinkies back 299 times. For some reason, this fact made Simmons feel justified in telling Grif it was dumb to buy 100 boxes of twinkies when they were discontinued for the 300th time. What an idiot. It was totally going to be for real this time.

Halfway through Grif's fourth twinkie, he was rudely interrupted by an anxious voice, declaring, "Captain Grif! It is I, Jeg 'Resum. We require the aid of you and your friends."

Grif jumped at the sight of the elite next to him. The giant alien was way too close for comfort. Grif leveled his gun at the alien, and spoke through a mouthful of twinkie.

"Don moof! I'll shooth!" Grif barely managed to articulate.

Tucker happened to be walking up at that moment. "That's gross, dude. Seriously, try swallowing (bow chicka bow wow). What's going on anyways? Who's the alien?"

The Sangheili replied. "I am Jeg 'Resum, friend of Captain Grif."

"I can totally see that," Tucker said sarcastically, looking at the gun in Grif's hand.

Grif swallowed the contents of his pallet. "Yea! If we're supposed to be friends, then why are you dressed like the bad aliens, huh?"

"Were you not there when we took on the disguises of our enemies?" Jeg asked.

"Yea, he's got a point, Grif," Tucker agreed. "You did help find disguises for the friendly aliens."

"Ok genius. So, how do we know if he's one of the friendly ones? They all look the same to me." Grif asked.

"That's racist," Tucker objected.

"So I suppose you can tell, huh?" Tucker said nothing. "That's what I thought!" Grif gloated. "Looks like you're just as space racist as I am!"

Jeg spoke, "Pardon me, but how can you not remember me, Grif? I am the only Sangheili that you have spoken to."

Grif suddenly remembered, "Oh! Are you the guy who didn't know who Tom Cruise was?"

"Indeed," Jeg responded irritatedly, "Jeg 'Resum."

"Jeggy!" Grif exclaimed, lowering his gun. Then he looked at Tucker and explained, "Yea we are definitely not friends, but, sure, he's not one of the bad aliens." Then turning back to Jeg, "Seriously though, dude, watch some movies."

"So, what did you want, alien?" Tucker asked.

"We have cornered our enemy, Grevu 'Meram, and we need your help."

Grif said, "My help? I'm not special."

"Indeed, you are not," Jeg agreed, "which is why I meant that we need the help of all of you. All of the humans."

Grif and Tucker passed the information along to the others. Church and Dr. Grey had fully restored the Chief's armor; both his mobility and his shields, and everyone was clearly ready to finish this fight once and for all. The mercenaries were dead, and now it was time to kill 'Meram.

Jeg 'Resum led the humans to the Arbiter and the five other surviving Swords of Sanghelios, who were all still in their disguises. They were standing guard by a large door, and one of the elites was working on the holographic door control.

"Demon!" Arbiter addressed the Chief upon seeing him. "Did you defeat your captors, the mercenaries?" The Arbiter was dressed in the red armor of a Covenant major.

"Yes," Chief replied. "Did you kill the Covenant?"

"Yes. All that remains is the traitor, 'Meram. The rat has dug his hole in the temple's control center which lies beyond this door. It seems as though we could use the help of your 'Epsilon' machine to unlock it."

Church's holographic body appeared upon being mentioned. He floated over to the door control, and the elite who had been working on it backed away respectfully.

"It's a holographic lock," Church declared, "Tough, but it shouldn't be a problem. Delta knows exactly how to tackle one of these things."

Carolina commented, "Really? Delta and York always had trouble cracking those."

"Uh, yea. That's because York always took point and thought he knew what he was doing."

Washington murmured, "Never was as good of a hacker as he thought he was, that cocky idiot. Rest his soul."

"Enough about York, alright?" Carolina snapped, masking her emotion. "Just get this door open, Epsilon."

As Church worked, Dr. Grey exclaimed, "The control center of the Forerunner temple! I can't wait to get my hands on all of that data! Imagine all the things we could learn! We can find out what kind of experiments they did on the ancient Sangheili all those years ago! Nothing is more exciting than learning about mad scientists! Makes you wonder what it would be like to be a mad scientist."

Sarge commented wryly, "Seems like some of us don't need to wonder that hard, if ya know what I mean."

The Arbiter spoke, "Once the door is open, taking the control room will not be easy. 'Meram will have surrounded himself with his most elite warriors. They are about twenty Zealot class elites and should not be taken lightly."

"No matter who these guys are," Carolina declared, "I'm sure they bleed like everyone else."

"Indeed," Arbiter agreed, "But do not forget that elites have shields to defend themselves."

"And Zealots' shields are tough," Master Chief commented.

"I think I have a way to destroy those shields," Washington declared.

"How?" asked Arbiter.

"I still have my old armor ability: my EMP. If I use it, the elites will be defenseless."

"Don't be an idiot, Wash," Carolina scolded. "You don't have an AI to operate that. It will leave you too weakened if you use it."

"What about Epsilon?" Master Chief asked.

"No," Washington said firmly. "I don't use AI's. It won't be that big of a deal. I'll use the EMP, then you guys can do the rest while I regain my strength. Don't worry about it."

"It would put too much stress on your mind, Wash," Carolina warned.

"I think I've learned to cope with stress on my mind, Carolina. Besides, we need to defeat these guys. It's not even about learning the secrets of this temple or our war with the space pirates or any of that anymore. It's about the Chief finding Cortana, and the Arbiter getting 'Meram. You may not know all that they've done to protect the galaxy, but I do. They've both made sacrifices to save us from the Covenant Empire and the Flood, and I'd be an idiot if I thought that they didn't deserve someone else making sacrifices for them for a change."

Washington's speech left everyone silent. Grif still thought that Washington was an idiot, but he had to respect the guy. Pretty soon, a glowing blue hologram holding a sniper rifle appeared.

"Door's unlocked," Church declared, "And without alerting the aliens inside to our presence, by the way. Feel free to shower me with praise."

"Oh you did your job?" Grif congratulated facetiousy. "Great work, there, Church."

Church laughed "Well, that's more than you usually do, Grif."

Grif nodded. "Yea, 'cause I'm not a try-hard that's always fishing for compliments."

Washington looked around at the other soldiers. "Okay. I'm going to run in there and use my EMP. Then you guys can come in behind me and finish them off."

Master Chief checked his assault rifle, then said to Carolina and the Arbiter, "I've got the left. You two get the right."

"You're on," Carolina agreed, twirling both of her magnums on each of her index fingers.

Sarge punched Tucker gently in the shoulder, declaring, "And me and ocean breeze, here, will lead the rest of the aliens right behind you, or we ain't worth anymore than a couple of tree huggers in a desert."

"Yea, thank goodness Doc's not here," Tucker agreed.

Arbiter held his carbine aloft and shouted to the other Sangheili as well as the humans, "Victory shall be ours, brothers. We end this fight now!"

Washington approached the giant door, which began sliding into the floor. Grif could start to see the other side. It looked more like a control courtyard instead of a control room. There was no ceiling, and the hot desert sun blinded him for a moment. He could see the silhouette of Washington jump over the top of the door before it had fully receded into the ground.

By the time Grif's eyes had adjusted to the light, Washington had run about twenty yards into the courtyard. The former freelancer raised his fist into the air, which began to spark with blue energy. He went down on one knee, bringing his fist down hard to the ground. A bubble of what looked like blue lightning expanded violently from Washington, sweeping like a wave over the whole courtyard.

The elites within looked up from their positions at various Forerunner terminals in surprise, as their blue shields flashed. They were no more ready for their shields to be disabled then they were for the dozen humans and Swords of Sanghelios to charge into the courtyard with guns blazing.

Grif was leading from the rear, as always, and he did not even have to fire a shot, as without shields it only took a single headshot to kill the purple armored Zealots. After only a couple of seconds of precision shooting, the Zealots' lifeless bodies were left sprawled on the ground or slumped over terminals, dripping purple blood onto the holographic keys.

Grevu was at a large terminal in front of a colossal spire in the middle of the courtyard, which had to be the main terminal of the temple. Arbiter fired a couple of rounds from his carbine at 'Meram, but the gold armored elite had grabbed one of his Zealots and was using him as a meat shield. Still holding the lifeless body of the Zealot as a shield, 'Meram backed up to the large terminal, and jumped over to the other side of it, so that he could hide in the space between it and the spire. Grif charged towards him with the others, but the elite popped up from behind his cover to fire his dual needlers at his attackers. Grif hit the floor as the purple, crystalline needles sailed overhead, ricocheting off of walls and floors and eventually shattering once they had been implanted in a surface.

One of the Swords of Sanghelios took five needles to the chest and screamed frantically before they exploded in a purple mist. Everyone else had taken cover. Grevu cocked his needlers back allowing fresh crystals to bristle from the top of his two small weapons.

"I'll get you for shooting me in the arm earlier!" Carolina threatened.

"No," said the Arbiter. "The traitor is mine." He then called to 'Meram, saying, "Your men have all either fallen or scattered. You can not hope to survive this. Dual me, and if you slay me in single combat, my friends will let you go free!"

"Ah, the false Arbiter," Grevu chuckled. "Ever so bloodthirsty. So it shall just be us and our blades?"

"Precisely," Arbiter declared, standing from his cover and casting his carbine to the side. "And if you have any honor left, you will accept my challenge." The Arbiter brandished his golden energy sword.

"I would be a fool not to, it would seem," Grevu declared, stepping from his cover and letting his needlers fall to the floor. He took his sword handle from his hip and activated it, revealing a sickly green blade. "Prehaps when I kill you, your followers will learn what I now know. That the Great Journey was always our destiny. It was just not the prophets' destiny."

The two Sangheili charged each other, one in his elite major disguise, and the other in the armor of a Covenant fieldmaster. Their blades clashed with ferocity. Each thrust with the blade was meant to kill, each parry necessary to escape death.

As the duo fought, Carolina and Tucker went with Dr. Grey to see if Wash was okay. He seemed to be unconscious after delivering that massive blast from his EMP. Sarge followed Master Chief and the Sangheili to the main control panel, and Grif joined them, mostly to stay out of the way of the two crazy aliens.

"The Great Journey was a lie, 'Meram!" Arbiter yelled, deflecting a vicious attack from his enemy. "You know this. I have told you the true purpose of the rings."

Grevu jumped to the top of a terminal, screaming, "And I was supposed to believe you without question? You who have abandoned your faith?" The elite used his vertical position to swing his sword down onto the Arbiter's head.

Arbiter caught his enemy's blade in the slit down the middle of his energy sword. "I have not lost the faith that true religion exists, but I have seen through the prophet's lies. They were keeping us from the truth, and using our faith to make us their slaves!" The Arbiter gave his sword a twist, pulling 'Meram's weapon from his grasp and sending it flying until its green blade buried itself into the floor ten feet away.

'Meram leapt from his perch on the terminal and sailed over the Arbiter's head, hitting the ground rolling. "I am no longer a slave to the prophets, Arbiter. I am a part of Jul 'Mdama's Sangheili-lead Covenant. It is the Covenant as it was always meant to be!" Grevu retrieved his sword from the ground before the Arbiter had a chance to stop him.

Grif turned to the people at the terminal. Master Chief was searching the console.

"I need to find the Domain," the Spartan declared.

Jeg 'Resum stood next to him. "I will search the terminal, Demon. I have some experience with Forerunner devices."

Grif continued to watch the dual. The Arbiter slashed horizontally, but Grevu jumped backwards to evade.

The Arbiter spoke, "You have cast your lot in with terrorists, 'Meram, and you have meddled with devices and technologies that should have never been researched."

'Meram slashed upwards with his blade, but the attack was deflected harmlessly to the side. "The Forerunners blessed the Freiu Kel with their holy knowledge and you fault me for wanting to take that knowledge for myself? A clone army will make the Sangheili unstoppable, and finally capable of fulfilling the Great Journey without the prophets or the brutes to hold us back."

Arbiter brought his sword down hard, but Grevu deflected it, causing the Arbiter to lose balance. "The Freiu Kel were the Forerunners' slaves, and they should have abandoned the Forerunners' technology when they became free. The cloning technology is an abomination, and it is why the Freiu Kel are now extinct." The Arbiter quickly regained his balance, and rolled out of the way of his enemy's oncoming attack.

"I believe I discovered the Domain, Demon," Jeg declared, causing Grif to pay attention.

Sarge exclaimed, "Well how about that! The alien ain't half dumb after all."

"I did not do anything," Jeg explained. "Look, the word 'Domain' has simply appeared on the console."

Master Chief leaned eagerly over the terminal. "What do we do?"

Before Jeg could answer, a woman's voice issued from the terminal. "John," it said.

"Cortana!"

"I see you have brought our friend, Thel 'Vedam," The voice continued. "Seems like he's in danger."

"The Arbiter can handle himself," Chief declared. "How do I get you out of here?"

Grif looked back at the elite that they were talking about. He was locked in a death grip with 'Meram. Each Sangheili had the other's sword arm gripped tightly in their off hand. They were pushing and twisting to get out of each other's grip.

"It is not just the cloning, Arbiter!" Grevu laughed. "You have no idea what this temple houses!"

"What do you mean, traitor?"

"This was the Forerunner's base of operations for one of their most prized experiments. You did not think that they would leave it defenseless, did you?"

Cortana's voice echoed through the courtyard. "The Domain is open. I have something to show you, John."

The temple began to shake. It felt like an earthquake. The giant spire suddenly lit up with orange lines of light that ran up and down its length. Large sections of the spire began to shift and move.

"Cortana?" Chief asked.

There was no answer.

"Cortana!"

The Arbiter was able to twist the wrist of his opponent, forcing the green sword from his hand. 'Meram then put both of his hands on Arbiter's sword arm, trying to hold it back. The Arbiter's now free left hand went to 'Meram's long neck, grabbing his throat.

"What did you do?" the Arbiter growled into his foe's face.

'Meram coughed and managed to wheeze out defiantly, "I did nothing, Arbiter. It seems as though someone has awakened the Guardian." The elite's single eye glinted with amusement at the Arbiter's confusion.

Arbiter had enough. He wrenched his sword out of Grevu's hands and thrust it up into the elite's chest. He let Grevu 'Meram's lifeless corpse slide off of his sword and drop to the ground.

"It is done," Arbiter declared, switching off his golden sword.

Grif laughed as he struggled to get his balance in the shaking courtyard, saying, "You wanna tell that to the earthquake?"

The spire started to separate, a large crack forming down it's center. Both halves of the spire floated apart, and something began to rise from its center.

Sarge exclaimed, "Sweet mother of codfish! It's a giant floatin' robot bird!"

Everyone was staring at the floating monster above them… except for Grif. Grif was distracted by the dozens of silver and orange robots that had begun teleporting into the courtyard.


	7. Roll Credits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a giant floating bird in the sky, and a small army of annoying robots. It's time for Master Chief to reach his goal and for the Reds and Blues to do their best to stay alive. If there was ever a time for Grif to show some initiative, it is now. Or, you know, maybe tomorrow...

Grif had fought many different enemies in his past, more than he would care to remember (Not because of regret, but because it would take too much thought). There had been those Wyoming clones, soldiers from the UNSC, the Meta, Tex robots, space pirates, more recently a bunch of Covenant, and (of course) the blues; just to name a few. Nothing Grif had ever put in the effort to actually lift his gun and shoot at was as infuriating and irritating as these stupid silver and orange robots.

Seriously. They took several clips of spamming to take down, and it was hard to tell when exactly they would be ready to die. At least when fighting elites there was that satisfying burst when there shields broke. When it came to these things, there was almost no satisfaction in shooting them at all. They were like bullet sponges.

That was not to mention the teleporting. The annoying things jumped all over the place, and when you thought you were about to actually kill one, they would just disappear and pop up again somewhere out of reach.

The smaller ones were not much better. They ran around on all fours like dogs. When their back was turned, there was almost no chance of landing a headshot, and then they would swarm a person, making it almost impossible to escape.

Then there was the flying things. Those were so annoying Grif did not even want to think about them.

"Dude, what the heck are these things?" Tucker yelled, swinging his sword around to slice open any of the dog-like robots that swarmed him.

Master Chief did not answer. The Spartan seemed barely aware of the small army of robots, even when a few of the bright orange projectiles that they fired collided with his shields. His attention was fixed on the giant, floating bird-like thing in the air.

Grif was taking cover with Sarge in between the main terminal and what was left of the spire, trying to keep from being overwhelmed by the new enemies. Grif could see Carolina activate and hold a bubble shield around Dr. Grey and the unconscious Washington. Great. It looked like the Freelancers were not going to be helping them fight.

At least they had the Swords of Sanghelios. The Arbiter was wielding his golden sword in his right hand and his carbine in his left, slaying enemies with equal parts grace and fury. Grif knew it would not be enough, though. The courtyard was filling up with the strange robots, and soon they would be overrun.

"Dagnabbit, this is a bigger mess than the time you peed in the sink!" Sarge exclaimed, unloading a shotgun shell into one of the robot's backs before it teleported away.

"Hey, you told me it was okay!" Grif objected, finishing the enemy off with a couple headshots once it reappeared a few yards away.

"I told you I would rather you pee in the sink than on the floor. I still expected you to wait until Donut got out of the bathroom, dirtbag!"

"Whatever, I couldn't hold it."

Tucker came to join them behind the control panel, breathing heavily. "It's getting crazy out there, dudes. We lost another red shirt." Tucker fired his DMR into the head of one of the dogs, and Grif watched as it dissolved into orange flakes.

"Hey, Chief!" Tucker called to the Spartan who was still uselessly staring up into the air. "You wanna help us here, or what?"

The Chief's helmet turned to stare at Tucker. "I need to fly," he stated.

"Yea? And I need to leave the army, but both of those things are impossible," Grif said, pelting a flying robot above him with his battle rifle until it exploded into orange fragments.

Grif noticed that Master Chief had taken a sudden interest in the flying enemy that he had just killed. "Cover me," the Spartan ordered. The green death machine finally took the rocket launcher off of his back. "Let one of the watchers get close. They fly away if you shoot at them."

"Yea, we do that so they don't kill us," Grif argued, reloading his rifle.

Master chief ignored him, walking forward with his rocket launcher at the ready but still spraying enemies with the assault rifle in his left hand.

"You heard the man," Sarge said, putting a foot down on the back of one of the robot dogs before blowing its head off. "Let the flyin' things get close, men. Maybe one of them will kill Grif if we're lucky."

Grif assisted Tucker and Sarge in clearing a path for the Chief. They refrained from shooting the flying robots, or "watchers" as Chief had called them.

"It's a darn good thing that blue friend of yours ain't here," Sarge commented. Sliding more shells into his shotgun. "He seems to get awfully close to robots."

"Who, Caboose?" Tucker clarified, pegging a robot in it's glowing red head before it could teleport away. "Yea, man, he'd probably try to get into the metal pants of every robot in here."

Grif quickly shot one of the four-legged robots that had climbed to the top of their cover. "What, no stupid 'bow chicka wow wow' comment?"

Tucker shook his head as he clubbed another of the robot dogs with the butt of his DMR. "No, dude. Some fetishes are too freaky, even for me."

Master Chief, it seemed, hardly needed anyone to cover him. Grif noticed that he was practically waltzing through the many enemies that surrounded him, smashing them with his powerful fists or spraying them with his assault rifle. Eventually, he got close to one of the watchers. Grif was not sure what the Spartan could be planning, since the flying robot was still way above him and out of reach.

Master Chief fired his rocket launcher. A fireball erupted in front of the green super-soldier, launching bits and pieces of robot in all directions before they dissolved into orange flakes. Chief had effectively cleared a fifteen foot area in front of him and under the watcher. He used this space to sprint forward a few steps and then take a massive leap into the air. The Spartan's jump was superhuman, but it was clear that he needed more height if he intended to reach the watcher.

That was when Chief fired the second rocket. The rocket exploded beneath the Chief's feet, breaking his shields, but also sending him higher into the air. The Spartan stretched out his hand and latched onto one of the watcher's circular wings.

"Aw, dude, that was Awesome!" Tucker blurted. "Did you guys see that?"

Sarge gave one of the robots a face full of buckshot before it could shoot the distracted Tucker. "Less googly-eyes and more shooting, Captain Fanboy."

Now that the Spartan was gone, Grif could tell that the enemies were focusing a lot less on them, and more on the bubble shield that Church and Carolina were using. Arbiter and his elites were still out there, wrecking havoc on the enemy, so that gave the three former simulation troopers an opening.

"See that," Tucker said, pointing to the watcher that Master Chief was clinging to in the air. "He's got no way to control that thing. We've got to help him."

"Didn't he say somethin' about them flying doohickeys retreating when you shoot them?" Sarge mentioned. "Why don't we just corral it with some good old fashioned hot lead? Send it where it needs to go. Sounds like my kind of rodeo."

"With absolutely no due respect, sir," Grif argued. "Are you insane? We're safe now. If we try to push the watcher up to that flying monster, we'll expose ourselves and probably get shot. The Chief wouldn't do the same for us. All he cares about is his stupid AI."

"Shut up, dude, we're doing this," Tucker declared. The aqua-colored captain picked up a long, rectangular rifle from the ground and handed it to Sarge. "Here. This is called a 'scattershot,' I think. It's like a shotgun, but it's got longer range."

"Like a shotgun?" Sarge growled in disgust. "Son, you must be joking."

"Do you want to be able to hit that watcher or not?"

Sarge sighed, "It's just not the same." The red-armored colonel reluctantly shouldered the new weapon, and together he and Tucker stepped from their cover and moved into position to shoot the watcher towards the giant flying bird.

The watcher was weaving around in circles, with Chief dangling underneath. To Grif's surprise, once Tucker and Sarge began shooting, the watcher moved in the opposite direction. Their plan was actually working.

"If you're not going to help us, could you at least cover us?" Tucker asked Grif irritatedly.

"Uh, I don't know," Grif answered distractedly. He had noticed Carolina's bubble shield flicker as if it was weakening. The two Freelancers and doctor were surrounded by enemies now. It did not look good.

"Aw shoot," Grif sighed, rolling his eyes. "Yea, I gotta go, guys."

"What!?" Tucker objected. Grif ignored him and walked towards the bubble shield, picking up a suppressor on the way. Not a Grifshot, but still a favorite of his.

Grif was not exactly sure what he was about to do. Putting himself out there and taking initiative were not exactly what he was known for. That bubble shield was not going to last, though, and no one else was going to do anything about it.

"This sucks," Grif muttered, as he carefully avoided a couple of elites who were slashing robots effectively with their swords. Grif levelled the suppressor at the horde of robots surrounding the bubble shield. He was close enough now to do some damage. Maybe if he started shooting, it would distract the robots from the people within the shield. It was worth a shot.

A hail of orange bullets rained down upon the robots. Grif was satisfied when a number of the dog-like robots exploded into orange flakes. The rifle flew apart into floating pieces in his hand and he placed a new clip inside, continuing his onslaught. He finally brought down one of the annoying, teleporting robots, and he noticed that many of the enemies had turned their attention to him. Grif had already reloaded his weapon before he knew what he was doing, and fired its contents into the crowd, destroying even more enemies.

"Crap!" he exclaimed to himself. Before he had realized it, the majority of robots had turned their attention to him. The four-legged ones were charging him, while bullets flew overhead. Grif turned and ran, something he hated oh so much.

His feet pounding into the sandy floor of the courtyard, Grif did his best to escape his pursuers calling for help as he did so, but he knew it was in vain. He was just too slow. He almost regretted eating those boxes of twinkies earlier.

Grif felt the ground hit his helmet before he realized that he had tripped. He lay there, sprawled on the ground, awaiting his death. Why had he ever bothered to help anyone?

At least he was going to die lying down.

Eyes squeezed shut, Grif could hear gunfire, but he did not feel any bullets pierce his skin. He looked up to see an aqua-colored blur swirl in circles around him, robots exploding as it went. The blur slowed, and Carolina materialized to shoot her grappling hook at a watcher. She rode the rope into the air, showering the heads of the enemy with bullets from her battle rifle.

"What the heck were you doing, Grif?" the voice of Church called down. "You trying to get yourself killed, moron?"

"I was saving you!" Grif yelled back. "Most people would be grateful!" He stood up, spraying more of the surrounding robots with his suppressor.

"Oh yes, you're a real hero!" Church called back sarcastically. "We should give you a cape and call you 'orange blob man,' and you can fight crime. Your only weakness will be running… and fighting."

"Stop yelling at the idiot and watch my freaking blind spot, Epsilon!" Carolina yelled at Church. She shot the wing off of the watcher she was attached to, allowing herself to drop into the middle of more robots. She began swinging the grappling hook with the attached wingless watcher around like a flail as she continued shooting from the hip with her BR.

Grif was jostled as the Arbiter rushed past with three elites behind him. "Let us end these foul machines, brothers!" he cried, as he and his elites cut a swath through the robots with their swords.

Grif was covering them as best as he could. He felt a presence beside him, and looked to see a fifth elite firing a plasma rifle by his side.

"It seems as though we may yet achieve victory, friend!" the elite declared. Grif assumed by the fact that he said "friend" that the elite was Jeg 'Resum. "Space racist" or not, he still could not tell the difference between him and any of the other aliens.

The elite was right, however. No more robots were appearing, and the ones that were left were quickly being decimated. Grif saw the Arbiter lay into one of them with his carbine until it teleported to where Carolina was waiting for it to break its neck. Jeg stuck a four-legged robot with a plasma grenade and kicked it into a group of four others, letting them all explode in a flash of blue. As the last robot turned into orange sparks, Grif sank to the ground, exhausted.

"Let's never do this again," he groaned.

A cheer went up amongst the Swords of Sanghelios.

"We did it!" Grif heard Tucker's voice call. "We got Chief onto that thing."

"Why anyone would want to board that monstrosity is beyond me," the Arbiter murmured, staring up at the huge bird hovering above the courtyard. It's size was unbelievable. It was impossible to see the Chief on it.

Everyone fell to the ground. They did not fall, really. They were pushed abruptly and violently by what felt like a powerful wind. It blew so hard that it actually hurt to hit the ground, even though Grif was already sitting.

"The heck was that?" Grif asked no one in particular. Another wind blast. Grif could tell now that it was some kind of pulse that was issuing from the giant bird itself. The blasts were coming at regular intervals, pushing everyone back from the center of the courtyard. One of the pulses pushed Tucker and Sarge close to Grif..

"Looks like this is the end, fellas," Sarge lamented melodramatically.

They had been pushed to the edge of the courtyard, close to where Washington and Dr. Grey were. The Freelancer was conscious now, but obviously confused by what was happening.

"I'm unconscious for a few minutes and all of a sudden there's a giant robot in the sky?" Washington said. "Where's the Chief?"

"He's on that thing, looking for his girlfriend!" Tucker explained. "I guess he got what he wanted."

"Yea, and he's gonna let us die!" Grif complained.

Everyone was thrown against the wall of the courtyard with another pulse.

"We'll be fine, Grif," Wash reassured. "We just have to… what the heck is that thing?"

Apparently, not all of the annoying robots were dead. A new one had appeared, much larger than all the rest. It walked on two thick legs, and held a gun and a strange, angular sword in its proportionately small arms. It had no neck, and it leaned forward with a huge crest or shell protruding from its back. The monster was headed right for them.

"What a specimen!" Dr. Grey exclaimed. "I would love to be able to study this machine. I'm sure its killing potential is tremendous! How delightful. Maybe we could-"

Washington interrupted, "Uh, I'm sorry, but could somebody please shoot that thing!"

"I dropped my gun," Grif said with a shrug.

"Uh, yea. Me too," Tucker confessed.

"Heh, rookies," Sarge chuckled, brandishing the scattershot.

With frantic encouragement from Wash, Grif, and Tucker, Sarge began shooting the large robot as it drew near. It was hard to keep steady aim, as the pulses kept knocking everyone off-balance. Sarge was able to get some hits in, but the bullets seemed to have no effect. He dropped the scattershot and grabbed his shotgun from his back.

"You can't bring that thing down," Washington spoke gravely as the monster neared them, readying its large, orange sword.

"Well I ain't givin' up!" Sarge declared, firing a shell before being thrown backwards by another pulse.

Washington stood to his feet and pulled his knife from its holster.

"What are you going to do?" Tucker objected. "That thing will kill you!"

"Maybe," Washington said, bracing himself against the wall as another pulse hit them. "And maybe I can hurt it enough so that it can't hurt you."

"Yea, since bullets aren't working I'm sure a knife will," Grif commented sarcastically.

Washington said nothing, bracing himself against the wall, preparing to lunge forward. The monster was right on top of them. It was now or never.

That was when it exploded. The creature split into two halves that flew apart in opposite directions. Grif was confused at first as to what had happened. It seemed as though something had physically sliced the robot in half from the top down. Realization of what had happened came over him when he saw the small crater in the ground.

"Is that the Chief?" Tucker gasped.

"Remarkable!" Dr. Grey exclaimed.

The green Spartan rose from the large indent in the ground and stood tall, wordlessly looking at them. He must have jumped from the giant floating bird to crush the robot far below. Grif had to admit to himself that he had been wrong about the green super soldier..

"You saved our lives!" Tucker praised.

Master Chief said flatly, "Shoot the knights in the glowing circles in their back. It's their weak spot."

"Quick, we need to get you back on that thing!" Washington declared, stepping forward quickly before being pushed back by another pulse.

The Chief shook his head. "It's too late."

As if to confirm the Spartan's words, a large, black slipspace rupture opened behind the enormous robot before the monster folded up and passed into it. The gargantuan machine was gone as quickly as it had come.

Everyone stood up, the pulses gone. There was silence until Washington said, "I owe you Chief."

Master Chief shook his head before he replied in his gravelly voice: "No. Now we're even." After a pause, Chief straightened his shoulders resolutely. "She'll contact me again. I'll find another guardian."

The Swords of Sanghelios and Carolina walked over.

"It seems victory is ours at last," Arbiter declared. "The foul machines have been destroyed."

"Prometheans," Master Chief corrected.

"Well whatever their called," Grif shrugged, "they are super annoying."

"Undoubtedly," Arbiter agreed.

"I miss the Flood," Master Chief stated.

Washington asked, "Weren't the flood an unstoppable parasite that was close to infecting all of planet Earth at one point?"

"Yes," Chief confirmed simply.

"We were forced to glass a city," Arbiter mentioned.

The whole flood situation sounded like a huge mess that Grif was glad to have avoided.

The ice blue hologram of Church appeared over Carolina's shoulder. "We've got trouble. Someone is in here."

Everyone began scanning the courtyard, but nothing could be seen besides the terminals and the sand that blew across the floor in swirling patterns.

"Dude, you're full of it. I don't see anything," Tucker objected.

"Doesn't mean there's nothing there," Carolina murmured suspiciously. She fired a round from her rifle at one of the consoles.

"What are you doing?" Grif asked.

"That console was lit up!" She explained.

They heard a groan, and saw drops of blood fall to the floor from what looked to be empty space.

"Locus!" Washington declared.

Everyone rushed the console, weapons at the ready. Before they could get close, though. An orange and black soldier jumped from behind the adjacent console. Felix activated his hand-held shield, and stood in between them and the invisible Locus, firing his DMR from around the shield.

As everyone took cover, Felix yelled, "Hurry up with that weird alien computer, Locus."

"Shut up!" Locus retorted. He sounded in pain. No doubt from being shot.

"What do you want, mercenaries?" Washington asked.

Felix laughed from behind his shield, "Did you get hit in the head, Wash? We're here for what we've come for. The data on the cloning technology. Not like anything's changed."

"Felix…" Locus warned.

"Oh come on, we're at the terminal," Felix pointed out. "It's not like them knowing is going to make a difference. Besides, I was hurt that he had forgotten about us." He turned back to Washington and the others. "If we can't get it to work here, I'm sure our boss has a lab that will work just as well."

Felix quickly fired his gun. Jeg was attempting to make a move, but was stopped when the mercenaries bullets hit his shields. It looked to be a stand off.

"How's it coming, Locus?" Felix asked in an irritated voice.

"It's downloading," Locus answered gruffly.

Grif was daydreaming at that moment. His stomach was growling, and his mind wandered to different delicious foods. Pizza was always great, but sometimes, one needed to partake of the finer things. Like steak. Steak would taste amazing right now. He remembered that he had stored a steak dinner in a future cube, but he was not sure now was the appropriate time to use a future cube.

Snapping back to reality, Grif realized that now was the perfect time to use a future cube. He reached into his pocket, and pulled out one of the orange and silver angular objects. He looked over at Master Chief.

"Just like jackals," he said, grinning under his helmet.

Grif stood up and threw the cube low and hard. To Grif's delight it hit the ground just at the right time to roll the rest of the way under Felix's shield.

"What the…" Felix was cut short, as both he and Locus vanished in an orange flash.

Grif raised both fists triumphantly, yelling, "Future cubes: the cubes of the future!"

"What witchcraft is this?" Jeg 'Resum asked, amazed.

"I've caught them in this cube!" Grif explained, holding up the corresponding future cube.

"Excellent work, Grif!" Dr. Grey praised.

Tucker commended, "Dude, you actually did something right!"

"Yea, don't get used to it," Grif replied with a shrug. The whole ordeal was finally over.

"So, you're just leaving, then?" Washington asked Master Chief. They were standing in front of the red Phantom that the Swords of Sanghelios had hidden in the desert. The Swords had just dropped the reds and blues off back at Armonia and were preparing to leave the planet with Chief.

"I've just been given a mission to recover something called the 'Argent Moon,'" the Chief explained. "I don't abandon my missions."

"Well, for what it's worth then…" Wash saluted. "It's been an honor serving with you, Master Chief!"

Carolina shrugged, "Yea, an honor." Although she did her best to mask it, her admiration could be clearly heard in her voice.

Master Chief saluted back, "I would say that you two should become Spartans, but these new Spartan IV's have nothing on either of you."

Grif was waiting with Tucker, Sarge, and Dr. Grey to say goodbye. The Chief turned to them.

"Dr. Grey, you are unsettling. Your enemies should fear your intelligence. Captain Tucker, you have more heart than you know. Colonel Sarge, never lose your passion."

Grif rolled his eyes at each of these corny encouragements. Then the Chief got to him.

"Captain Grif, you are a smart and skilled soldier. Don't forget that."

Grif grinned under his helmet. "Hear that, Sarge?"

"Don't ruin the moment, nimrod," Sarge growled.

The Arbiter appeared from within the Phantom. He called to the Master Chief, "Have you made ready, Demon?"

The green soldier said nothing but stepped onto the Phantom. He looked back at Carolina. Church's hologram was hovering over her shoulder.

"You're annoying, Epsilon, but you are a brilliant AI," Chief declared. Then to Carolina, "Take care of him. Don't let him fragment."

The Phantom rose from the ground.

"Farewell humans!" the Arbiter called down. "You are brave and honorable warriors!"

The group watched as the red Phantom flew away into the sky.

"What was that ship?" A woman's voice asked.

Grif turned to see Kimball approach.

"That was a ship belonging to Chief's alien friends," Church explained. "They're leaving."

"The planet!?" Kimball asked, obviously upset.

"Woah, relax, baby," Tucker attempted to soothe. "What's the matter?"

"How did they get through the tractor beam?" Kimball asked.

Carolina shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe alien ships aren't affected."

"So you just let them leave without telling them to send for help!?" Kimball practically shrieked.

Nobody answered. There was a long, awkward silence.

"I'm not sure why we didn't think about that," Wash finally answered.

Kimball threw up her hands. "I know why. It's because you're all morons!" The woman stormed off, leaving the group alone in the Armonia hanger.

"Yea, we probably shouldn't tell her that we let Locus and Felix go in the middle of the desert," Church declared.

"She just wouldn't understand the poetic justice of stranding them in the middle of the desert, huh?" Sarge declared. "Women and their sensibilities."

"Ugh, we really are morons, aren't we?" Tucker asked.

Grif smiled to himself, "Yes, yes we are." He was finally home. Now to find a bed...


End file.
